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The Catholic Educational Review
VOLUME II
June-December
1911
Published Monthly Except July and August
THE Catholic Education Press
Under the Direction of the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
The Catholic University of America, Washington, D. C.
EDITORS
Edward A. Pace, Ph. D., S. T. D., Professor of Philosophy Thomas Edward Shields, Ph. D., LL. D. Professor of Education
COPYRIGHT. 1911, BY THE CATHOLIC EDUCA.TION PRESS
CONTRIBUTORS
Burns, Jame:s A., Report of the Committee on High Schools 605
Carrigan, Thomas C, William Callyhan Robinson 919
Charity, A Sister of. The Educational Work of New York
Sisters of Charity 793
Corcoran, C. M., Relation of the Seminary to the General Edu- cational Problem, considered from the Seminary View- point 875
Currier, Chari.es Warren, Education in South America 699
DoNNELivY, Francis P., Splitting the Difference in Education 488
Generose, Sr. M., Discussion 550
The Conduct of the Teacher in the Class- room 711
Hartigan, James A., Twentieth Century Praise of Books 518
HoivY Cross, A Sister of. The Sisters of the Holy Cross— 627
A Hasty Inference 923
Holy Name, A Sister of. What the First Summer School
at the Catholic University of America Was to the Students 673 The Work of the Sisters of the
Holy Names 888
JuiviAN, Brother, A Tripartite Aid to Religious Education 909
McCoRMiCK, Patrick J., Current Events__559, 662, 759, 854, 950
Retardation and Elimination of
Pupils in Our Schools 641
Education of the Laity in the Mid- dle Ages ^'^'
McClorey, J. A., The Education of the Priest of To-day 786
Nolle, Lambert, Doctor Lorenz Kellner 682
O'DoNNELiy, Charles L., Reading in Secondary Schools and
Colleges 898
O'Hara, Edwin V., The Diocesan Teachers' Institute 481
Ott, Michael, Benedictine Education in the United States.- 499 Pace, Edward A., The Seminary and the Educatron Problem 577
Religion in Education 769
Shahan, Thomas J., The Summer School 593
484 The Catholic Educational Eeview
of the Institute, for no matter how thoroughly the lec- turer may know his subject, he may fail to present it so as to be useful to the teachers. He must bear in mind that the primary purpose of the Institute is inspirational and consequently, that he is not to present a course of lectures furnishing detailed information about the sub- ject in hand, nor is he concerned exclusively with the method of presenting his subject to a class. His aim must be to open up new avenues of thought, to implant fertile ideas which will bear fruit in the years to come; to increase a love and zeal for the particular branch he is teaching, for the success of the teacher in the school is not to be attributed chiefly to method, nor to mere mastery of detail, but to the interest and enthusiasm for the subject which he can awaken in the pupil.
In describing the actual programme of an Institute we may begin by calling attention to the religious exercises with which it is opened and closed. The Church has always placed every serious undertaking under the pro- tection of God. Hence it is fitting that our Institute should open with the Mass of the Holy Spirit, to draw down the light of the Spirit of Truth and Wisdpm on the assembly. At the mass a sermon is delivered by a dis- tinguished priest, on the aims of Catholic education, thus giving a keynote to the proceedings of the Institute and declaring the principles upon which those who are assem- bled are agreed. This opening sermon serves, too, as an enunciation of the Catholic position and makes clear to the public the serious purpose of the Church in main- taining, at such great sacrifice, its independent system of educational institutions. The Institute is brought to a close with solemn benediction at which the Most Eeverend Archbishop delivers the concluding address.
In general it may be said that the forenoon is devoted to departmental work and the afternoon to the general sessions of the Institute. The department work may be divided according to grade or to the special subjects, thus
The Diocesan Teachers' Institute 485
we may have kindergarten, primary, grammar and high school departments, or, cutting across these lines of divi- sion somewhat, we may have classes in religious instruc- tion, domestic science, manual training, music, mathe- matics, history and so forth. It is manifestly impossible to have all of these different branches represented at each institute. Choice must be made among them. The best results will be secured if five or six are maintained. Nor should all of these be conducted at one period. The fore- noon may be conveniently divided into three one-hour periods, and two, or not more than three, departments conducted simultaneously. Care must be taken to arrange the departments so that no two which appeal to the same group of teachers will be carried on at the same time. Those attending the Institute will thus be able to select the classes they wish to follow, or their superiors can assign the departments from which they will derive the greatest utility. This arrangement will also give the teachers free periods, when they may consult with the lecturers personally. By a department we mean a sub- ject to which there will be devoted a course of three to five lectures, ordinarily one each day. The connection between the lectures of such a course may be the common subject-matter, as, for example, American Political His- tory or School Hygiene ; or the connection may come from the class of students contemplated, as, for example, the teaching of the kindergarten or the elementary grades.
Just as the forenoon is devoted to those subjects which are of interest to special classes of teachers, the afternoon is devoted to lectures of general interest and to a musical programme. These general talks may deal with the teaching of religion, which, of course, is of interest to every teacher in the schools, or with general method, or, finally, with special topics by some well-known authority. Perhaps this is the best opportunity to introduce a course of lectures on religious instruction. Thus, last year we had a series of five lectures by Kev. P. C. Yorke, D. D.,
vi Index
ShiÂŁ:i.ds, Thomas E., Survey of the Field 531, 728, 925
Discussion 748, 841, 944
Stanton, LssuE, Material Conditions 816
Tracy, John J., De La Salle, Francke's Prototype 528
Military Training for Adolescents 799
Turner, Wii.IvIAm, How to Study the History of Education. _ -508
The Christian Ideal of Education 865
Ursuline Sister, The First Session of the Summer School
of the Catholic University 654
Valentine, Brother, Fatigue in Teachers 777
Van Antwerp, Francis J., The Relation of the Seminary to
the General Educational Problem 695
GENERAL INDEX
Action and the teaching of Ian- gauge 550
and the teaching of religion__554
words in child's vocabulary 751
and study of history 523
Aiken, Charles, address to Cardi- nal Gibbons 834
Aim in teaching child to read 843
Aims, needless conflict of 932
Alexia, Mother 723
American Cassinese Congrega- tion of Benedictines 503
American colleges, university
methods in 497
Americanization, hasty 533
Angela, Mother 633
Anselm's St., College, Manches- ter - 503
Associaton of oral and visual
images 844
Attitude, change of 539
Authority, usurpation of 740
Automatizing words 852
Bede's. St., College, Peru 502
Benedict, St. 812
Benedictine education in U. S. —499
first monastery in U. S. 500
Missionaries 504
Order, discipline in 506
School, spread of 812-13
teaching, disinterestedness of_504 Benedictine College,
first in U. S. 501
Pueblo 502
Savannah — 503
Benedictine Colleges 503-4
curriculum 506
Benedictines
and the conversion of Eng- land ---- 499
and European civilizaton 506
first establishment in the
U. S. 500
and Medieval education ._499
and Reformation ._. .'I'OG
work of -__499
Benedict's, St., College, Atchison_502
Bernard's, St., College 502
Blackboards and pictures 819
Boarding Schools,
advantages of 801
defence of 505
Books.
possibilities of 535-26
20th century praise of 517-18
Boys and girls, mental powers of 542
Brown, Ammi 746
CaroHne, Mother Mary 724
Carriage and posture 819-20
Carrigan, Thomas C. 741, 745
Catholic college, first for wom- en 1 922-24
Catholic education,
organization of 876-7
in Oregon 481
problems of and the sem- inary 877
Catholic education series 849
and context method 944-5
Catholic Educational Association_925 Catholic Educational Review in
the Seminary 884
Catholic educators and educa- tional difficulties 769
Catholic High School,
academic standing of 615-16
and college 612, 614
complete and incomplete 608
cost of 618-19
curriculum 617-20
need of 607, 655
in New York —797
number of 605-6
plea for 943
specific aim of 932
Catholic ideal of education 548
Catholic literature, neglect of 902
Catholic military schools 799
Catholic schools,
effective training in 776
need of statistics of — , 645
need of system in.— — _ 926
retardation and elimination__641
Catholics in science 916
Catholic University,
founding of 832
growth of -- 824, 831
lay faculties 836-38
new appointments 745
a product of faith 824
saving the 832-33
Summer School,
appreciation of 654, 673
attendance 593
classified attendance 659
Vlll
Indj;x
and Coordination in
Catholic schools 597
courses 593
parochial schools 595
prolessors of 675
relation to University 594
religious teachers at 603
report of Secretary 658-61
significance of 593
students of 675
and teaching of religion_602-3 Catholicism, growth of in U. S._826 Character, time required for for- mation 716
Charity, Srs. of,
educational work in N. Y 793
St. Vincent de Paul 793
Schools conducted by 795-97
Training of novices 794
Training School of ».— 797
Work of 793
Child language and home en- vironment 842
Children, classifying 850
Child's
dramatization 945
need of mental food 944
oral and written vocabu- laries 824
thought, developing 944
written vocabulary 750
Christian aim in education 511
education and imitation 871
home and pagan society 807
Christian ideal of education 865
misunderstandings of 873
permanency of 873-4
Christian and pre-Christian ideals
of education 516
Christian schools,
development of early 805-6
types of early 806-7
Christianity and
cultivation of the beautiful_871-2
freedom 868
immortality 869
marriage t. 868-69
sanctity of home 868
supremacy of spiritual ideal
869-70
unification of character 872
Chrysostom, St., and Christian
schools 806
Church and
education 678
experimental science 917
Roman schools 805
science 912-15
Church's solution 738
Circulating library 905
Class explanation and home study 492
Classics,
method of studying 492
reading of 906
and small college 490
Classroom equipment 816
Coeducation and
elimination of boys :-544
Englewood experiment in 541
imitation 545
passing of 540
College,
definition of standard 792
entrance requirements
616, 617, 931, 937, 939
small and the classics 490
Collegeville, Minn., foundation
of 501-2
Collegiate Hall, ^ St. Mary's. 639
Colleges and universities 489
Coin, Franz 745
Compromise
in education 488
a fatal 534
and httle red school house 532
Conception College 503
Conflict of ideals . 733
Conscience in the morning 784
Context method 748
Catholic Education Series944-45 Continuity in educational process 936 Coordination and subordination
of studies 495
Correcting papers 777-8
Culture and rehgion 678-9
Curriculum, meaning of 508
Defective home training 802
De La Salle, ,
Francke's prototype 528
and the poor — 529
Diocesan teachers' institute 481
Diplomas from sitate officials 731
Discipline in the schoolroom — 781-2 Discontent with educational sys- tem 536
Discrepancy in high school aims_941
Dissipation of energy 942
Distractions, avoidance of 818
Dubois, Bishop 794-5
Dujarie, J. F. 628
Durocher, Eulalie 887
Education,
American, superficiality of — 496
in Argentina 722-5
Benedictine in U. S. 499
Index
ix:
in Brazil 701
Catholic ideal of 548
in Cnile ^ 706
Christian aim in 511
Christian ideal of 865
Christian and pre-Christian
ideals 516
and the Church in South
America 699-700
in Colombia 709
compromise in 488
cultural and vocational ele- ments in 582
defective histories of 528
Greek ideal 867
how to study the history of-_508
for human excellence 866-67
of laity in Middle Ages 805
material conditions of 816
medieval and the Benedic- tines 499
and the ministry 883-84
narrow meaning of 580
organization of Catholic -.876-77
organized efifont in 512
pagan and Christian ideals
• of 865-66
in Panama 710
in Peru 708
policy of 540
religion in 769
religious aids to 909
Roman ideal of 867
in South America 699
splitting the difference in 488
in Uruguay 702-3
and the young priest 880
Educational
advance 696
discussions in the seminary_884
experiments 531
ideals, succession of 511
lectures in the seminary 886
magazines in the seminary — 884
monopoly •- 733
principles 488
principles and the liturgy __509 principles and methods— 599-600 problem from seminary view- point 875
problem, solultion of 942
work in New York of Srs.
of Charity 793
Educator, marks of the true — 780-1 Electivism,
cause of movement 497
in seminary and college — 582-3
Elementary schools, function of 641-2
England, conversion of by the Benedictines 499
Exercise, out of doors 784
Expression in language 494
Farley, Archbishop, address of__830 Fatigue,
causes of 779, 781, 783
function of 778
in teachers 777
Feminization of schools 546
First lesson 752
France and apostolic spirit 627
Francke, an imitator 530
Francke's work tor the poor 528
French Revolution 627
Fourier, St. Peter 723
Gascoin, Leocadie 628
Gillespie, Eliza 633
German training of professors__497 Gibbons, Cardinal,
as an educator 826
reply to addresses 839
sketch of life 826-29
success of University due to_833
and the University 831-33
Gibbons Memorial Hall,
building of 830
contributions to 824
dedication 823
Girls and boys, mental power of_542
Gleis, Paul 745
Gray's attitude towards books 523
High School,
biology in 935
Catholic and non-CathoHc —608
Committee of N. E. a 927
course 938
Curriculum 937
Curriculum enriched 928
English in 934
function of 928-29
and Life's purposes 943
naitural science in 935
and parochial school 610
physical training in 936
report of Committee on
Catholic 605
teachers 609-10
social science in 935
two-fold aim of 926-27
History,
disciplinary value of -495
and literature 903
History of Education,
cultural value of 513
Inde;x
how to study 508
impartiality in 514
interpreting facts in 515
items in the 512
point of view in 513, 516
in seminary 881
History, philosophy of 495
Holy Cross Association 628
Holy Cross Srs. of- 627-28
American notiviate 630-31
in Civil War 638-39
Constitution and rules ap- proved 637
Foundress of _628-29
new American Congregation_637
new foundations 632
Spansh-American War 639
Holy Names, Srs. of ___887
development of community
of 891-92
foundation 889-90
Spanish-American War __896-97
Home, developing the idea of 945
Home study and class explana- tion 492
Imagination, cultivation of 753
Imitation and Christian educa- tion 871
Incarnation, the 788
Individual,
safeguarded by Christianity--867 suppression of in pagan edu- cation 866
Institute,
advantages of 487
aim of 482
departmental work and gen- eral sessions 483-84
diocesan teachers' _-_ 481
and general public 487
general work of 485
instructors in 482
management of 483
opening and closing ad- dresses 484
programs 484-85
support of 486
Intellectual and moral training__881
Interstate certification 728
Jasper College 503
John's, St., College, opening of— 502 Joseph's, St., College, Covington,
La. 503
Kellner,
Lorenz 682
and Catholic education 682-83
death of 693-94
enemies' praises of 684-85, 693
and history of education 689
and Kulturkamp 692
life and education 685-87
master of training college--687
Schulrat 690
writings of 685
Kelly, C. L. 746
Laity in Middle Ages, education
of 805
Language,
first steps in written 748
methods of teaching 552
teaching, old and new meth- ods of 552-53
Law and the American Child __741 Laws of mental development_712-13
Lecturing and teaching 493
Leo's, St., College, Fla. 502
Literature, love of, in the teacher 900 Liturgy and the principles of edu- cation 509
Martin of Tours, St. 811
Martin's, St., College, Lacy,
Wash. 503
Mary Rose, Mother 892
Mary's, St., College,
Belmont 502
North Dakota 503
Newark 502
Material conditions of education_816 Mathematics as mental drill --494 Means, the choice and grouping
of 493
Medieval and modern ideals 870
Meinrad's, St., College and Sem- inary ^—. 503
Melting Pot of nations 535
Men teachers, need of 547
Mental power of boys and girls_542 Methods,
classification of 508
prevalent unscientinc 853
Middle Ages, education of laity_805 Military,
and civic virtue 800
schools,
aim of private 803-04
a corrective 802
modern 799
and self-control _— ...802-03
virtues developed in 800
training for adolescents — 799
in Greece 799
Milton's attitude towards
books 522-23
belief 520-21
Index
XI
Modern method of teaching 584
Monasteries in Great Britain 813
Monastery,
first Benedictine in U. S.-_500 outer and inner departments
of 812
Monastic schools,
development of 810
•early 807-8
early in Gaul 810-11
in Ireland 813-14
Monasticism, western, influence
of eastern on 811
Moral and intellectual training__881
Moreau, Abbe 628-29
Motives for teaching 510
Mount Angel College, Oregon 503
Mount St. Vincent on Hudson,
Academy 797
College 795
Nagging 822
National Menace 734
New words, treatment of 853
Normal schools, standard 730
Notre Dame
and Le Mans 636
School Srs. of, in America--723
American foundation 723
Foundation in Mil- waukee 723
Government of Congre- gation 727
Membership in 724
Rapid growth of 725
Training of novices--726-27
Open door in education 940
Oral method and syllabifica- tion 843-44
Oral and visual images, relative
strength of 844
Oregon, Catholic education in 481
Out-door exercise 784
Pagan
ideals static 866
society and Christian home 807
Painter's history of education, de- fects of 529
Parallel, suggestive 737
Parish school in
Edessa 809
Rennes 809
Parochial schools in 6th century_809
Pastor in the school 879
Pastoral theology and educa- tion 882-83
Pedagogy in the
Seminar 885
seminary 697, 878, 882
Perfection, ideal of 872
Philosophy of History 495
Plato and books 525-26
Power vs. Content 584-85
Preparation for class 777
Priest
and Catholic education 588
education of the 786
and educational movement 577
human elements in 790
privileges of 792
qualifications of 791
Priesthood,
training for 584
two-fold function of 787
Primitive Observance, congrega- tion of 503
Procopius, St., College, 111. 502
Procrustean methods -848
Professors, German training of__497 Prudery, reaction against in
literature 519'
Public schools, retardation and
elimination 642-43
Pupils,
bright and dull 490
entrance and exit of 818-19
large and small numbers of 489
Quantitative requirements 933
Questioning and talking 491
Reading,
acquiring a taste for 899-
adjusting to student 901
circle and literature 904
for information 903
in primary grades 752
in secondary schools and col- leges 898
silent 757
Regents and educational experts_73&
Regularity in school 823,
Religion
Christ's method of teach- ing 556-5T
in education 769
effect of 773
and historv 910
meaning of 770-71
and morality 775
new meaning of 773-74
in the schools 772
science 910
teaching of old and new meth- ods 555.
Religious vocations 940
Repetition, need of — 944
Retardation and elimination
in Catholic schools 641
Xll
Index
function of 648-49
in public schools 642-43
Rhodes scholars, defective train- ing of 496
Robinson, William C,
death of 919
sketch of life 919-21
Round Table discussions 483
Sacramental Presence 789
Saint Mary's
Academy 633
chartered 635
Salary, disadvantages 737
Seaton, Mother Elizabeth Bay- ley 793
Secular clergy, ducation of, in
monastic schools 808
Senses, Cultivation of 752-53
School Board,
a dummy 739
paid 735
School work, first phase 846
Schools, large and small 489
Science and the teaching oi re- ligion 910
Scientific methods 509
in primary grades 848
temper, absence of 536
Seminary
and adjustment to present
needs _578-79
and college _ 580-81
conservation in 578
curriculum 697-98
and educational problem_577, 695
function of 578
history of education in 881
ideal of education 577
pedagogy in 697
preparation for 583
and problems of Catholic edu- cation 877
teaching of pedagogy in__589-90
Shame, glorying in our 534
Shea, D. J., address to Cardinal
Gibbons 836
Shepherd idea, development of,
946, 949
Sign, a helpful 538
Sisters' College at Catholic Uni- versity 743
Sorin, Father 630
SpelHng book, qualities of 854
Spelling
drills 851
oral methods of 842
learning, psychological basis of 842
new method of teaching 841
in second grade 846
teaching of 841
Spencer's ideal of education 871
btandard,
Christian 732
the dollar 732
uniform 731
State limitations 738
Statistics, fallacious deductions
from 646-47
Studies, coordination and subor- dination 495
Subiaco, new, college 503
buperficiality of American educa- tion 496
Supplies, anticipating needed 817
Swiss-American Congregation of
Bened.'ctines 503
System in teacher's work 779
Talking and questioning 491
Taste for great books 907-8
Teacher,
character and knowledge 711
coldness in 714
conduct of, in classroom 711
and formation of character-_696
humanity in 718
necessity of faith in 716
personal influence of 714
personality of 821
and students' reading 900
Teachers,
fatigue in 777
institute, diocesan 481
need of men 547
work, system in 779
Teaching
child to spell 941
child to think 944
conditions of 778-79
and lecturing 493
motives for 510
Script 756
Temperament and enthusiasm 783
Teresa of Jesus, Mother 893
Text-book in primary reading and
spelling 849
Thought, development 844
Truth, suppression of 530
Universities and the ages ot faith,
823-24 University methods in American
colleges 497
Unscientific methods, value of 509
Ventilation
in the schoolroom 782
of schools 817-1
Ind^x
XIU
Vincent, St., first Benedictine Col- lege in U. S. - -_ 501
Virtues developed in military
schools 800
Visual area, development of 844
Visualizing power,
classifying children according
to - 847
differences in 847
Vocational
and liberal, blending of 930
training of women 543
Vocations, cultivation of 549, 933
Washington, value of a sojourn
in 680
Walk, how to 820
West Point, model for military
schools 803
Wimmer, Fr. Boniface 500
Women teachers and politics^ 548
Women, vocational training for__543 Word pictures, functioning of — 844
XIV
Inde:x
CURRENT EVENTS
American Cardinals, three new--950 American Seminary, Foreign
Missions 760
Brooklyn College, new President_564 Catholic College for \A/omen, Chi- cago 951
Catholic Educational Association,
Chicago, meeting 662
Resolutions of 665
Catholic High Schools, St. Louis_759 Catholic University of America,
Conferring of degrees 560
Engineering Building — _• — 559
Faculty 560
Gibbons' Memorial Hall-559-560
Increased registration 854
New Departments 559
Public lectures 858
Summer School 559
Trustees' Meeting 559
Catholic Women, Congress of 565
Catholic Young Men, Convention
of 952
Children's Bureau in the Depart- ment of Commerce and Labor_560
Conway, Katherine E. 761
De Paul University, Summer
School 671
Digby, Mother Katherine 760
Diocesan Teachers' Institute,
Santa Monica, Cal. ; 667
Flynn, Rt. Rev. D. J. 668
Fraternity men, failure of 564
High JSchool Fraternities abolished 956
Holy Cross Academy 957
Resumption of Classes 858
Visit of Apostolic Delegate--859
Kerst, Mother Scholastica 670
McCaddin Fund, for Education of
ecclesiastical students 563
Mothers, National Congress of __565 Mount St. Vincent on Hudson,
gifts to 670
National Congress of Mothers__565
O'Doherty, Rev. D. J. 761
Parental School in Washington__856 Parochial Schools and Vocational
Schools 669
Professional Schools, higher
entrance requirements 954
Repplier, Agnes 567
Ryan, James A. 951
St. Charles' College, rebuilding 761-62 St. Mary's of the Woods, com- mencement ^__566
Sisters' College,
Faculty of 1 854
Formal opening 854
Schrembs, Rt. Rev. Joseph 855
Squiers, Plon. H. G. 955
Southern University for Wom- en 857
Trinity College, registration 857
Villa Sancta Scholastica, College
Department 855
Winona Seminary, Growth of __956 Women,
Congress of Catholic 565
Southern University for 857
REVIEWS AND NOTICES
Ayres, Laggards in Our Schools_570 Currier, Lands of the Southern Cross 863
Donnelly, translation of Tosti's History of Pope Boniface VIII...964
Donnelly, Analysis of Newman's ; Second Spring 864
G. C. D., Life and Writings of
Rt. Rev. John B. Delany 961
Hudson, The New Shakespeare,
12th Night, or What You Will_964 Jones, Education as Growth, or
the Culture of Character 765
Krus, Von Dr. Franz, Padago-
gische Grundfragen 965
Laurie, Teachers' Encyclopedia— 861 MaHne, Story of the Mountain — 573
Menghini, Manuale Sacrarum Caeremoniarum 966
Mullett, Chief Ideas of the Bal- timore Catechism 572
Report of Superintendent of Catholic Schools,
New York 571
Pittsburg 56§
Newark 958
Report of the Proceedings and Addresses of Cath. Ed. Ass'n__959
Semeria Eucharistic League in the Roman Rite 575
Turner, Lessons in Logic 764
Winch, When Should a Child Be- gin School 763
The Catholic Educational Review
JUNE, 1911
THE DIOCESAN TEACHERS' INSTITUTE
The present paper aims to set forth simply an account of the workings of a diocesan Teachers' Institute, based on several years' observation of a local Institute which has passed through the experimental stage and is now on a definitely established basis. This account will serve to record the efforts which are being made in the Arch- diocese of Oregon along the lines of Catholic education, and may incidentally be suggestive to others.
The Teachers' Institute of which we speak is a gath- ering of all teachers from the Catholic schools in the diocese, for a week during each summer. It is not merely a meeting of representatives from the different commu- nities but aims to be directly of service to each individual teacher. While it is primarily for the teachers in Cath- olic schools, it not only does not exclude other teachers, but gives an opportunity for teachers in the public schools to come in contact with the principles of Catholic educa- tion. The Institute is not held merely for the teachers in the parish schools, but for all our teachers, whether in academies, parish schools, or Catholic high schools. In assembling such a gathering for a week during the sum- mer it requires some management to avoid the time of retreat for the various religious communities both of men and of women. The selection of a place, too, is attended with some difficulty, though locally we are for- tunately situated, as each of the twelve religious commu-
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nities who are teaching in the Archdiocese has a school in Portland where its members reside during Institute week.
We pass to the aim of the Institute. The Institute is distinct from the summer school. Its purpose is chiefly inspirational. Teachers engaged in the round of daily class work receive too little encouragement, and are in grave danger of losing freshness and spontaneity, and of degenerating into human machines. It is the aim of an Institute to counteract such tendencies, to give a sense of solidarity to the teaching profession, to keep before the minds of the teachers of youth the high ideal of the vocation to which they are called. In fact the Institute is an intellectual retreat ; hence it should not be too long. Teachers require a vacation after the nerve-racking experience of the school year, both for their own sake and for that of the pupils committed to their care. The Institute should, therefore, not encroach too much upon the vacation period. Its purpose is not merely instruc- tional on the one hand, nor pedagogical on the other; it is not expected that teachers will here study in detail the subject-matter of a special branch; neither is the Institute merely a series of lectures on method. It must be sug- gestive both on the pedagogical side and on the instruc- tional side. The intense earnestness of our teachers may be depended upon to cultivate the seeds which are sown in their minds during the Institute. The lectures must therefore be arranged accordingly.
The choice of instructors for the Institute is of prime importance. They should be taken both from local talent and from the national field. In the first place selection should be made from local instructors. The colleges of the diocese may always be counted upon to possess able instructors, and the writer can bear testimony to the courtesy and enthusiasm which they manifest in connec- tion with the diocesan Institute. Provision must be made, too, to utilize the talent of the teachers actually employed
The Diocesan Teachers' Institute 483
in the elementary schools, though the burden of the Institute should not be thrown upon them. Perhaps the best means of using the talent of the Sisters is in the informal Round Table discussions which should find a place on the Institute programme. In addition to local lec- turers, we must bring in the ablest Catholic educators that can be found in the United States. This is essential for the infusion of new and progressive ideas. We must strike a medium between the extreme views that our pres- ent system of instruction is fundamentally wrong and, on the other hand, that we have nothing to learn on the sub- ject of education. Both views are equally mischievous. A diocesan system should feel that its salvation is not dependent upon the introduction of radical ideas on method of instruction or content of curriculum. On the other hand it should avoid that condition of sterility which Kipling satirizes in his poem where he speaks of those who are * ^ perfectly pleased with their work. ' '
We come now more directly to the actual management of the Institute. The simplest form of Institute would be that conducted by a single lecturer. The teachers are assembled from all parts of the diocese and from all departments of the schools, teaching every grade from the kindergarten to college preparatory, and every subject from music to domestic science and back again to gram- mar. The lecturer, choose what subject he may, can hardly hope to be of interest or use to this heterogeneous assemblage. He may try to find the least common denomi- nator in general talks on method, but sustained interest cannot be maintained on such a basis. The Institute must begin by recognizing the various interests represented and attempting to make an appeal to every class of teach- ers present. This leads to departmental work. It also involves the selection of a number of instructors who are fitted to present different subjects and to present them according to the needs of the different groups of teachers. These instructors must have clearly in mind the purpose
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of the Institute, for no matter how thoroughly the lec- turer may know his subject, he may fail to present it so as to be useful to the teachers. He must bear in mind that the primary purpose of the Institute is inspirational and consequently, that he is not to present a course of lectures furnishing detailed information about the sub- ject in hand, nor is he concerned exclusively with the method of presenting his subject to a class. His aim must be to open up new avenues of thought, to implant fertile ideas which will bear fruit in the years to come; to increase a love and zeal for the particular branch he is teaching, for the success of the teacher in the school is not to be attributed chiefly to method, nor to mere mastery of detail, but to the interest and enthusiasm for the subject which he can awaken in the pupil.
In describing the actual programme of an Institute we may begin by calling attention to the religious exercises with which it is opened and closed. The Church has always placed every serious undertaking under the pro- tection of God. Hence it is fitting that our Institute should open with the Mass of the Holy Spirit, to draw down the light of the Spirit of Truth and Wisdpm on the assembly. At the mass a sermon is delivered by a dis- tinguished priest, on the aims of Catholic education, thus giving a keynote to the proceedings of the Institute and declaring the principles upon which those who are assem- bled are agreed. This opening sermon serves, too, as an enunciation of the Catholic position and makes clear to the public the serious purpose of the Church in main- taining, at such great sacrifice, its independent system of educational institutions. The Institute is brought to a close with solemn benediction at which the Most Eeverend Archbishop delivers the concluding address.
In general it may be said that the forenoon is devoted to departmental work and the afternoon to the general sessions of the Institute. The department work may be divided according to grade or to the special subjects, thus
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we may have kindergarten, primary, grammar and high school departments, or, cutting across these lines of divi- sion somewhat, we may have classes in religious instruc- tion, domestic science, manual training, music, mathe- matics, history and so forth. It is manifestly impossible to have all of these different branches represented at each institute. Choice must be made among them. The best results will be secured if five or six are maintained. Nor should all of these be conducted at one period. The fore- noon may be conveniently divided into three one-hour periods, and two, or not more than three, departments conducted simultaneously. Care must be taken to arrange the departments so that no two which appeal to the same group of teachers will be carried on at the same time. Those attending the Institute will thus be able to select the classes they wish to follow, or their superiors can assign the departments from which they will derive the greatest utility. This arrangement will also give the teachers free periods, when they may consult with the lecturers personally. By a department we mean a sub- ject to which there will be devoted a course of three to five lectures, ordinarily one each day. The connection between the lectures of such a course may be the common subject-matter, as, for example, American Political His- tory or School Hygiene ; or the connection may come from the class of students contemplated, as, for example, the teaching of the kindergarten or the elementary grades.
Just as the forenoon is devoted to those subjects which are of interest to special classes of teachers, the afternoon is devoted to lectures of general interest and to a musical programme. These general talks may deal with the teaching of religion, which, of course, is of interest to every teacher in the schools, or with general method, or, finally, with special topics by some well-known authority. Perhaps this is the best opportunity to introduce a course of lectures on religious instruction. Thus, last year we had a series of five lectures by Kev. P. C. Yorke, D. D.,
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on the manner of imparting religious instruction in the elementary schools. During the coming Institute we plan to have a course of lectures on Fundamental Christian Apologetics, by the Very Reverend H. Moynihan, D. D., president of St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minnesota. Each afternoon a quarter of an hour is devoted to a musical programme, including both instrumental and vocal numbers. This introduces a period of relaxation into the otherwise strenuous labors of the day.
The question of the support of the Institute is a very practical one. It is unnecessary to say that a staff of instructors, such as that we have been contemplating, can- not be secured without expense. This expense is required not merely for the services of the various lecturers, but in case of instructors who are brought from a distance, the railroad fares are no small item. At the outset we met these financial obligations by holding lectures, the pro- ceeds of which were devoted to this purpose. Later on the religious communities of the diocese contributed a per capita tax of one dollar for each member attending the Institute. While this method resulted in raising the neces- sary sum, it was realized that it imposed an unjust burden on the teaching communities, for the benefits of the Insti- tute were clearly to accrue to the parishes in which the teachers were engaged. Hence it was that two years ago the present equitable and satisfactory method was pro- posed and adopted by the pastors who were interested in the work of the Institute. At present each parish con- tributes ten cents for each child enrolled in its school and boarding schools contribute a like sum for their pupils. The parishes are at liberty to raise the fund in whatever way seems best to them, though the simplest method, and one growing in favor, is to ask each child in the school to contribute ten cents for this purpose. An advantage of this device consists in the fact that it awak- ens a direct interest in the children and in their homes for the advancement of* Catholic education. In any case the
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present method has proved entirely satisfactory, being at once equitable, easy to operate, and adequate in returns.
The advantages of the diocesan Institute are many. We may mention a few of the more important here. The most obvious result is the increased enthusiasm for their work which the teachers gain from the lectures. This is an advantage which will not be underestimated by those who know the necessity of interest and enthusiasm on the part of the teacher. New methods and new insight into the subjects of the curriculum are, however, not the only advantages. The Institute gives the teachers of the various communities an opportunity to meet each other in an informal way. It thus breaks down the barriers which sometimes obstruct intercourse between groups of teachers who are all engaged in promoting Catholic edu- cation. Thus the general aims of Catholic education prevail over the narrower interests of any particular school. The various communities within the diocese become mutually helpful and a salutary and friendly emulation arises from more intimate knowledge. Another positive advantage is to be found in the uniformity which comes from within. It is theoretically a simple matter for authority to impose uniformity from without, but a diocesan system in which the unity grows up from within, rooted in a recognition of common interests and cultivated by the friendly relations of independent groups, will enjoy a more vigorous and fruitful growth.
We may close by calling attention to a final advantage of the Institute, namely, its moral effect on the Catholics of the community and on the general public. It inspires a confidence in the efficiency of our schools which can hardly be obtained in any other way. It brings before them in a visible and embodied plan the earnestness with which the Church promotes the diffusion of knowledge and prepares her teachers to bear the light of truth to her children.
Edwin V. O'Haba.
Portland, Ore.
SPLITTING THE DIFFERENCE IN EDUCATION
Who was it that said that principles are pilots, not Pilates 1 Whoever it was, he would not have been patient with the title originally chosen for this article. Compro- mises in Education. Compromise has usually an evil sound. It implies lowering of standard or deflecting to the left or right, pursuing, in a word, the devious course of Pilate, who was trying to satisfy both sides by steering alternately close to each, not keeping, like a true pilot, resolutely to the central channel. Compromise in princi- ples is an evil, but compromise in their application may be prudence. Perhaps compromise is not the best word, although most of us might plead guilty to a knowledge of that term and by it might understand better the point to be insisted upon in the vast subject of education.
Books on education seem to establish the rather com- forting fact that there is not a noteworthy difference of opinion on the vital topic of developing the mind. The practical common sense of mankind, confirmed by what it sees going on in the plant and animal world, agrees in the larger principles of education. There must be interest and activity and theory and practice. The native curiosity or desire of knowledge must be stimulated; a certain amount of information must be imparted; the faculties must be exercised upon the matter, the growing mind must be trained to cope with graded difficulties. Put in that way, the programme would meet with general approval. The problem of vesting the mind is akin to the less noble one of clothing the body. We all approve of the large rolls of cloth, the measuring tape and the ruler; we all see the need of a comfortable, decent and well-fitting suit of clothes. The problem consists, it might be said, in circling the square, in turning flat quad-
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rangular pieces of cloth into cylinders and spheres and various curved surfaces with the help of the straight edges of rulers and scissors. The compromise in educa- tion, if the word is permitted, consists in applying the truths of science and art to the varying contours of the mind by the help of these unvarying and inflexible princi- ples of all education. Most experienced educational tail- ors believe in cutting the cloth to suit the man ; some few faddists cut the man to fit their ready-made uniforms.
between lakge numbeks and small
The first place in which the theory of compromise might be applied is to the numbers of pupils each teacher should have. Unfortunately this difficulty is settled by other considerations rather than by the prudence of the educa- tor. The number of teachers is small and will likely be always small relative to the number taught. The very rich can afford a private tutor ; the comfortably provided can send their children to restricted schools; the people will have to force their little ones into classes already overcrowded, believing it well they should have a rag to clothe their intellectual deficiencies if they cannot have the complete outfit. The private tutor might seem ideal, but there is an education and a democracy in the rivalry of the class-world which is not supplied by the quiet and skil- ful coaching of the tutor. Even the teacher is helped by the numbers if they are not too large.
The size of the school, as well as the size of the class, affords another problem of adjustment. Must the col- leges all be large and grow into universities 1 Are all our schools to be department stores ! This question has been recently put and answered in the negative by the grad- uates of Amherst College in an address submitted to the trustees of their college. The compromise is: Have a good college where circumstances of finance or equipment do not permit a university; let those who want an educa-
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tion for a trade or avocation go to the technical schools. Professor Gonzalez Lodge in The Classical Weekly (Feb. 18, 1911), commenting on this address with approval, distinguishes between what men are going to do and what they are going to be, that is, between what their avocation shall be and ^'what influence they are going to exert by their own personality upon their neighbors.'* He believes that experience and breadth of view will come from a modern classical education. ^^The proper place for such an education is in the small college and not in the large university; in the small college men have time to grow instead of hustle, the object in view is primarily life and not money. ' '
BETWEEN CLEVEE AND DULL STUDENTS
When the students have assembled in the class-room another and growing problem presents itself. Imagine a whole street flocking into a tailor shop and insisting upon being supplied with suits of clothes, all the same size and yet every one a good fit. The tailor might order some elastic rubber, but more probably he would call the police. Now the teacher has daily and hourly to fit one and the same teaching to the miscellaneous sizes before him. Will he do kindergarten work with the lowest in the class or will he give a university-extension course to the brilliant minds at the head of the class ? He will have to compromise, and this is one of the questions which wor- ries much the conscientious teacher. Some make sections and so strive to solve the problem. Some ignore the diffi- culty and go on in blissful unconsciousness, dispensing their wisdom without hampering their progress by any- thing so common as a test or questions or repetitions. How a teacher is to find the true course is hard to deter- mine in every instance. It is something to realize that all students have a right to an education, the dunce as well as the genius. Some modern theorists believe both extremes
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are diseases and promise us that the dunce, at least, will cease to exist. It is a consummation to be wished, but most of the remedies hitherto suggested call for more doc- tors for one patient than can be supplied, and then we are confronted by the initial problem of supplying teachers.
BETWEEN talking AND QUESTIONING
The difference between pupils leads naturally to another difficulty quite similar, the choice of different methods of appeal to the pupils. Will a teacher talk all the time or try to get his class to do most of the talking? If the writer may be indulged an open confession, he would admit that an experience of some years of teaching has revealed in him a certain inclination to talk, not always controlled with success. To question with tact and patience, to perform the daily miracle of curing par- tial mental-blindness, to focus the vision by further and further suggestion until things that look like trees finally disclose themselves as men, and to repeat that process over and over again, all this is a tremendous strain upon teachers, and it can hardly surprise us that they yield frequently to the more flattering and easier occupation of listening to themselves lecture. Here is the compromise offered by Mr. A. C. Benson in ''The Schoolmaster'' \ ' * Some teachers deal largely in questions, but if the class is large, it needs almost genius to keep question and answer going with sufficient rapidity to insure universal attention. Moreover, if the requisite enthusiasm is evoked, it requires a good deal of masterfulness to keep it within decorous bounds. I myself believe that question- ing should be more used in small classes and that with a large class a form of lecturing, interspersed with ques- tions, is the more effective. But here again the idiosyn- crasy of the man comes in. If a teacher has the gift of asking questions of a kind that stimulates curiosity by the form and makes the answering of t}iem into a brisk
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species of intellectual lawn tennis, he is probably a very good teacher.'^
BETWEEN EXPLANATION IN CLASS AND STUDY AT HOME
Home work, as well as class work, makes its demands upon the teacher's faculty of adjustment. Happy the teacher who dismisses his class, not burdened and dis- heartened by a heavy load of merely assigned lessons, not with a supply of cut and dried answers for cut and dried questions, but with lessons that have been explained, which have been illuminated by sympathetic and sugges- tive teaching and which will call for some original work, not wholly uninteresting, on the part of the pupil, work which is either to be put in writing or made ready for an oral delivery on the following day. A particular example of this species of compromise is furnished in the teaching of Latin and Greek. In Catholic colleges and especially in Jesuit schools, a previous explanation, called the prelection, is given for the Greek and Latin authors. A different system has been followed in most of the other schools and colleges of the country, but now the latter seem to be clamoring for a better adjustment. To say to a class in Latin, ^^Take the nex:t fifty lines,'' is usually only another way of saying, *' Invest a small sum of money in a translation. " * ' A professor in a large univer- sity," says Professor Lodge in The Classical Weekly, March 4, 1911, ^^told me recently that ninety per cent of the work done in the classics in that institution was done by means of translations. ' ' What does the Professor of Teachers College, Columbia University, propose as a remedy ? ^ ' Not more time devoted to Latin and Greek in the curriculum, but more time devoted to them in the school or class-room. The college system by which the freshman class prepares a certain modicum of text for recitation in the class-room is fundamentally wrong and
Splitting the Difference in Education 493
must go or we must go.'' ^*It is too absurd for consid- eration/' Professor Lodge thinks, *'to ask a young man of eighteen to prepare a translation of fifty lines in Horace after he has been studying Latin for four years. ' ' In the Classical Journal, January, 1911, an article on Factors in Vitalizing Study of the Classics advocates the old method of prelections almost as if it were a new dis- covery. The precedent of Germany is adduced in favor of the practice. A lecture of Dr. G. Stanley Hall is cited on the same side. ^'The message of this lecture," says the writer, ^4s, ^ Teach! Teach! Ask no pupil to take a step in advance except under direction ! ' If the Germans do not make weak and dependent students by this method, neither need we." The one who wishes to catch up to the modern advance in education will need to do no more than stand where he is with his world-old methods and the rapidly shifting programmes and schemes of today will complete their comet-flights in space and come back to his system.
But if modern teachers see once more the advisability of old methods, conservative systems must not go to the other extreme of doing everything for the student or becoming stereotyped in their teaching. Their explana- tions should be suggestive, stimulating and not formal and exhaustive. Between the lecturer and the mere assigner of lessons comes the teacher who will plan the campaign, map out the roads, do much of the pioneer work, point to the enemy, but will permit his students to fight in the battle.
BETWEEN ANY MEANS AND CERTAIN MEANS
All other compromises in education are insignificant when compared with the most important, which is one concerned with the choice of means and their grouping. Ex-President Eliot and his school believe that any study or work, from sawing and filing in the shop to the sorting
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and weighing in the laboratory, will give as good an edu- cation as reading and writing or parsing and translating. Any tool in the universe, it would seem, can fashion brains. A dentist could not pull a tooth with his hand-mirror or a doctor lance a boil with a stethoscope, or a watchmaker mend a watch with a hoe, but an educator can grasp any means that is handy to poke into a lad's brain and bring it into order and maturity. These extreme conclusions of exaggerated electivism were not followed out, because a force of teachers could not possibly be supplied for the purpose of catering to every individual taste. Some of our universities had schools of veterinary surgery and therapeutics, but none of them could supply courses in advanced blacksmithing and asphalt-paving and other brain-producers of the kind. Again, common sense and brief experimentation showed that as the instruments of the humblest trade have been perfected in the course of years, much more had the established instruments of edu- cation received the perfecting touch of time. Eeading, writing, speaking, in a word, expression in language had been the end as well as the means of edu- cation for centuries, and thoughtful men saw that so it must continue to be because language, and especially the classical languages, had been rendered apt for the purpose by constant use and because language is close to man's thoughts and will certainly serve as a test of their worth even if time had not shown it to be their very best discipline. Certain other means of education which have in the course of time been improved and are now adapted to develop the faculties, may be added to supplement. Mathematics may give a more obvious lesson in the strict- ness of logic, and initiate its scholar into the world of pure science; some special sciences, such as chemistry and physics, may focus more sharply the powers of observation and open up the world of nature to the young mind J history may convey more interesting and useful
Splitting the Difference in Education 495
lessons and reveal the world of the past, but a sane com- promise has declared that these additional means should fulfill the role of accessories, not of principals.
BETWEEN COORDINATION AND SUBORDINATION OF STUDIES
As there must be a choice in the means, or a compro- mise, to keep to the term in the sense we have been using it, there must also be a compromise in the relative promi- nence of these means. Modern education has pretty well agreed upon the languages, mathematics, some special sciences and history as essential means of developing the faculties. Modern education does not always admit there should be subordination of those means. The tendency seems to be to put all these means on the same level, to coordinate them in the process of education. In some cases, for example, history is treated as practically the equivalent in educational force to the study of the classi- cal languages, but in order to make it so, its professors have assembled around it various subsidiary helps from other studies. Composition and analysis and map- drawing and debates and fiction and drama and art, in a word, every educational device has been centered upon history, which becomes in that case a principal study.
Some writers on eduation, like John Stuart Mill, would not seem to admit a large amount of discipli- nary value in history. There are two things in history, his opinion seems to be, facts and the causal connection of facts. The facts he would have imparted to students who are not likely to have leisure in after life to gather them from private reading ; the causal con- nection of facts, or the philosophy of history, belongs to the professional school. Eecent years have witnessed an immense activity in historical lines, partly because the world is growing old and becoming reminiscent, partly because evolutionary theories have put people to
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studying origins and growths. The schools were prompt to respond to the new stimulus, and history which was formerly content to be an accessory, now in many places has been raised to the dignity of a principal study. By the various devices already mentioned as well as by others the attempt i§ made to have the lessons of history educate in the process of committing them to memory. The attempt has, undoubtedly, met with its share of suc- cess, but even with the help of all the means borrowed from other subjects to which these means more properly belong, it is impossible to deny the truth that history for the lower schools is a question of committing facts to memory and so not suited to usurp the role of a principal study which should appeal to more than one of the mental faculties. The coordination of history as a principal subject seems to have worked harm in other ways, and recently Superintendent Maxwell of New York City has expressed regret that the teaching of Greek and Roman History should have been taken from the Latin and Greek teachers. Another instance of advanced views in educa- tion completing the orbit of experimentation and now returning to the original point of departure.
The evils of excessive coordination have never been put so strongly as they have been in his recently published annual report by President Pritchett, of the Carnegie Foundation. He quotes the views of twenty-one tutors who give their opinions on all the Rhodes scholars from America or on certain individuals. The reports offer rather gloomy reading. Sixteen of the criticisms fasten on lack of thoroughness, smattering and dilettanteism. The following serve as a specimen: ^^I think that their training in America has, in most cases, encouraged smat- tering in a large number of subjects. As a general rule, they know nothing well, but know something about a great many things — the kind of knowledge you might get from attending public lectures. '^ President Pritchett,
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commenting on these views, says among other things: ^^ These shrewd criticisms show unmistakably that the average American who goes as a Ehodes scholar to Oxford, even though he be a college graduate, finds the work to which he is there assigned fully worthy of his mettle ; and they show also most clearly that in the major- ity of cases the student finds difficulty in doing his work, arising out of the superficiality and the diifuseness of his previous training in the American secondary school and in the American college, and the failure of this training to give him intellectual power. ' '
Such criticism might have been confidently expected by anyone that has marked the evolution of our educa- tion for the past fifty years. Representative pro- fessors of America went to Germany for their edu- cation. On their return they imposed university meth- ods on American colleges; and the colleges, in turn, on the high schools. Had they brought back the whole German system, education would not have suffered so much, although the substitution of a new system in place of American traditional systems would have caused some difficulty. Perhaps it is this imiversity training in Ger- many of American professors that furnishes the sufficient explanation of the mushroom growth of electivism. At all events, the American college and high school of fifty or sixty years ago differed but little in its educational system from the corresponding Catholic college and high school. The classics were supreme in both and other sub- jects were kept as accessories only; in both there was concentration upon definite subjects directed to a definite aim. There was subordination and not coordination. A striking proof of this close unity and singleness of pur- pose in teaching may be found in such a book as Good- riches British Eloquence, now out of print. The book is an eloquent testimony of the teaching at Yale in the mid- dle of the nineteenth century. Chauncey Goodrich was
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professor of rhetoric there for more than thirty years at the time of editing his book. What was the system fol- lowed? *'He took/^ he says in his preface, ^'Demos- thenes ' Orations for the Crown as a text book, making it the basis of a course of informal lectures on the principles of oratory.'^ To Demosthenes, as his notes show, he added Cicero, and to both the best orators in English. Here was a professor bringing the oratory of Greece, Eome, England and America to bear upon one subject, the art of public speaking. That concentration of three or more literatures upon the acquisition of one art is the practice in Catholic colleges and schools today. The university methods of coordinate and separate depart- ments, each directed to the mastering of some science, not of an art, is the characteristic of most other schools and colleges in America today. Which system is more likely to effect that thoroughness which has been found lacking 1
Fkancis p. Donnelly, S. J. St. Andrew's on the Hudson, Poughkeepsie, N. Y.
BENEDICTINE EDUCATION IN THE UNITED
STATES
From its rise in the sixth century up to our own days, the Order of St. Benedict has always been preeminently a civilizer of nations. St. Benedict himself began this work of civilization by destroying the last remnants of paganism on Monte Casino, and his sons have faithfully continued to spread the light of Christianity and civiliza- tion throughout Europe. In proof of the early mission- ary and civilizing activity of the Benedictine Order suffice it to mention St. Augustine, who, with about forty other Benedictines, was sent to England by Pope Gregory I, himself a Benedictine, to spread the light of the true Faith among the pagan Anglo-Saxons ; St. Boniface, St. Willibrord, St. Suitbert, St. Pirmin, who preached the Gospel of Christ in various parts of Germany; St. Ans- gar, who converted Scandinavia; and St. Adalbert, who evangelized Prussia, Bohemia and Hungary. Throughout the Middle Ages the Benedictine monasteries were so many lighthouses that flashed their lights of learning over the whole western world. In recompense for these great services to mankind, the false reformers of the sixteenth century destroyed countless monasteries on the European Continent and literally annihilated the Order in England. Scarcely had it recovered from these reverses when in the middle of the eighteenth century the forcible seculari- zation of monasteries was inaugurated in Austria and spread over the whole of Europe, so that in the first half of the nineteenth century nearly all the Benedictine mon- asteries had been appropriated by the secular powers and the monks were driven penniless from their homes. But phenix-like the Order rose from its ruins and today bids fair to regain its pristine splendor. It was due to the
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severe setbacks which the Order sustained in Europe that it could not unfold its wonted activity in the United States until a recent date.
The first permanent establishment of the Benedictines in the United States was effected by the late Archabbot Boniface Wimmer in the year 1846. The proximate occasion of this establishment was the scarcity of German- speaking priests and the ever increasing number of Catholic settlers in the United States. The heart of Father Boniface Wimmer, a capitular of the Abbey of Metten in Lower Bavaria and at that time a professor at the Hollandish Institute in Munich, went out to his spirit- ually neglected countrymen in the New World. He knew that the best way to help them permanently would be to found in the United States a monastery with college and seminary, where American-born Germans could be prepared for the priesthood. After a few years the semi- nary would be in a position to send out its annual quota of priests who could minister to the spiritual wants of the German population. Having obtained the permission of his superiors. Father Boniface entered upon his cher- ished plan with all the energy of which this future patri- arch of American Benedictines was possessed. King Louis I of Bavaria and the Louis Missionary Society aided him financially, so that on July 25, 1846, he was able to set out for the United States. He was accompanied by eighteen young men who had signified their intention to enter the Benedictine monastery which Father Boniface was to found in the New World. Four of these were theological students, while the other f ounteen were intend- ing lay brothers. They arrived in New York on Septem- ber 16 and, three days later, left for the place which is now called Carrolltown, where Father Lemke had offered them a tract of land for building a monastery and a school. They reached this place on September 30, but remained only two weeks. Bishop Michael O'Connor, of
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Pittsburg, who was highly pleased at the prospect of having a Benedictine monastery and school in his diocese, invited them to St. Vincent, a place forty miles east of Pittsburg, which was far more suitable for their purpose than Carrolltown. They accepted the bishop's generous offer and arrived at their new home October 18, 1846.
This is not the place to recount the many trials and hardships that are unavoidably connected with the foundation of a monastery, especially when, as in the present case, the founders have neither money nor even the necessaries of life, and are almost entirely left to their own resources. But God's blessing rested visibly on the nascent community which underwent all these hardships in His service. On October 24, 1846, the eighteen com- panions of Father Boniface were vested with the habit of St. Benedict, and this little band of laborers in God's chosen field was destined to grow and multiply until the sphere of their missionary and educational activity extended over almost every State in the Union. The first Benedictine College in the United States was opened at St. Vincent in Pennsylvania in 1849 and had as its first director the Rev. Thaddeus Brunner, a capitular of the Benedictine monastery at Metten in Bavaria, who had been sent by his abbot to assist the youthful Benedictine community in the United States. The total enrollment of students during the first year of its existence was only thirteen. But the number steadily increased ; in 1852 the enrollment was thirty-two, and two years later it reached ninety. The present attendance of St^ Vincent's College and Seminary ranges between four and ^ve hundred.
With the elevation of St. Vincent to an abbey in 1855, the educational activity of the Benedictines developed very rapidly. At the request of Bishop Cretin, of St. Paul, the first Benedictines were sent from St. Vincent to Minnesota in 1856. They were the learned and saintly Father Demetrius di Marogna, two clerics and two lay
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brothers. One of the two clerics was the Eev. Cornelius Wittman, who is still living as a capitular of St. John's Abbey, Collegeville, Minn. They settled about two miles south of St. Cloud, on the Mississippi, where a log hut served as their monastery. From there they ministered to the spiritual needs of the neighboring settlements and erected log chapels and schools at various places. Some of the most thriving towns of Stearns county owe their names to the names of the saints in whose honor those log chapels had been reared. One of the most lasting monuments of Benedictine missionary and educational activity in and near the present Abbey of St. John's is the fact that Stearns county, in which the abbey is sit- uated, is the most Catholic county in the United States. In November, 1857, they opened St. John's College near St. Cloud with one professor and five students. In 1858 monastery and college were transferred to the neigh- boring town of St. Joseph, then, in 1864, to a place near the present Collegeville station, and finally to its present site in 1866. The number of students that flocked to St. John's stea(Jily increased until the present attendance of the College and Seminary is over 350.
About the same time a party of Benedictines was sent from St. Vincent to erect a monastery and a college in Kansas. They founded St. Benedict's College at Atchi- son in 1858. Whenever the archabbot of St. Vincent could spare some of his men, he would send them out to found monasteries and colleges wheresoever they were most needed. In this manner arose St. Mary's College at Newark in New Jersey, in 1869; St. Mary's College at Belmont in North Carolina, in 1874 ; St. Leo College at St. Leo in Florida, in 1889; St. Bede College at Peru in Illinois, in 1891; St. Bernard College at St. Bernard in Alabama, in 1892 ; the Bohemian College of St. Procopius, formerly at Chicago, now at Lisle in Illinois, in 1890; and the Benedictine College at Pueblo in Colorado, in
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1903. The Benedictines of St. John's Abbey at College- ville, Minn., founded St. Martin's College at Lacey in Washington, in 1895; those of St. Mary's Abbey in New- ark, founded St. Anselm's College at Manchester in New Hampshire, in 1888; and those of Mary Help Abbey in Belmont, N. C, founded the Benedictine College at Savan- nah in Georgia, in 1902.
The thirteen Benedictine colleges mentioned above are conducted by that branch of American Benedictines which was transplanted upon American soil by the late Arch- abbot Boniface Wimmer and is known as the American Cassinese Congregation of Benedictines. This congrega- tion at present numbers 439 priests among its members. Upon the invitation of Bishop Maurice de Saint-Palais of Vincennes, a new colony of Benedictines came to Indiana from the venerable old monastery of Einsiedeln in Switz- erland in 1853. They founded the monastery of St. Mein- rad in 1854, St. Meinrad's College in 1855, and St. Mein- rad's Seminary in 1866. This branch of American Bene- dictines, which at present numbers 203 priests among its members, is known as the Swiss- American Congregation of Benedictines. Besides the College and Seminary of St. Meinrad they conduct the following colleges : Conception College at Conception in Missouri ; New Subiaco College at New Subiaco in Arkansas ; Jaspar College at Jaspar in Indiana; St. Joseph's College at Covington in Louisiana; St. Mary's College at Eichardton in North Dakota ; Mount Angel College and Seminary at Mount Angel in Oregon.
The French Province of the Congregation of the Primi- tive Observance founded the Monastery of the Sacred Heart at Sacred Heart in Oklahoma in 1874 and conduct a college and seminary in connection with their monas- tery. At present this congregation has 32 priests.
In all, the Benedictines in the United States at this writing comprise 672 priests and conduct twenty-one colleges and six seminaries, with an average attendance
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of 3,500 students. But their educational activity is not limited to college work. Since they have always made it a practice to found their monasteries and colleges at such places as were most in need of Catholic missionaries and educators, they have often found it necessary, espe- cially in their pioneer days, to accommodate themselves to the needs of the Catholic population and teach the elementary branches of learning as well as the higher ones. In Minnesota, the two Dakotas, and Oklahoma some Benedictines have for a long time been devoting themselves very successfully to the civilizing and Chris- tianizing of the Indians, while in North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and the Bahama Islands some are doing the same successful work among the negroes.
The educational work of the Benedictines in the United States has met with great success. It is certainly a great advantage to students that all their teachers are members of a monastic community, who are not in the least influenced in their work by any thoughts of financial recompense, but who devote their lives to teaching, unmindful of any worldly reward, in accordance with the Benedictine maxim: Ut in ommihus glorificetur Deus. (That in all things God may be glorified.) Just as the individual professors in Benedictine colleges do not make teaching merely a means of gaining their livelihood, so does also the existence of a Benedictine College, as a whole, in no way depend on its financial income. It is part of the monastery with which it will stand or fall. The education of youth forms part of the daily work of the Benedictine monk, and is no more conditioned on financial success than the daily recital of his office. Our utilitarian men of affairs may shake their heads at such unbusiness- like methods, but they cannot grasp that the sole purpose of a monastery is to be of service to God and his holy Church. The Benedictine educators work on the prin- ciple that the thorough Catholic training of youth is the
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best means of advancing the cause of the Church. Hence it is, that the Benedictine monasteries of the United States apply most of their surplus revenues towards the advancement of their educational institutions and are not discouraged even if they conduct their colleges at a finan- cial loss. Since the existence of Benedictine colleges does not depend on their financial success, Benedictine educa- tors do not care merely to have a large number of well- paying students; they are on their guard to admit no student whose bad habits may exert an evil influence on his fellows. Benedictine educators do not cater to the whims of those entrusted to their care. They have the true welfare of the student at heart, but do not think that he is a competent judge of what is conducive to a thorough mental and moral training. It is also for this reason that the elective method of education, which has of late years done so much harm in our American institutions of learning, has found no entrance into the Benedictine colleges.
Following the long tradition of their Order, the Bene- dictines in the United States have made it a practice to erect their monasteries and educational institutions away from the distractions and temptations of large cities. In consequence, most of their institutions of learning are boarding schools. Every method of education has its defects, but it can scarcely be denied that a boarding school, if it is conscientiously managed and if undesir- able students are excluded, is best adapted to build up and develop a sterling character in young men. The orderly manner of living, the wise distribution of time, the edifying example and the imposing personality of the Benedictine teacher in his religious gown, his disinter- ested devotion to duty, his many self-sacrifices for the moral and intellectual advancement of his pupils, in fact, everything the students come in contact with in a board- ing school that is directed by a Benedictine community,
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makes a lasting impression on their receptive minds and plastic hearts. They become accustomed to obedience, regularity, the exact performance of duty and are imbued with such principles as will make them good Christians and useful members of human society. Unlike the mem- bers of most other religious communities, the Benedic- tine monk takes the vow of stability, which binds him to his own monastery for life. He is, therefore, not trans- ferred from one monastery to another at the will of his superior, but always remains a member of the monas- tery for which he made profession. As a result, the life in a Benedictine community has all the advantages of a happy family life — and this is perhaps the most beautiful feature of the Benedictine Order. This family life extends in some degree also to the students at Benedic- tine colleges. The officials and the teachers endeavor to make the college a second home to their students and treat them as a good father would treat his son. The discipline is mild and the necessary order is maintained rather by paternal admonitions, by appealing to religious motives and to the student's sense of honor, than by severer methods.
The courses of study pursued in Benedictine colleges are practically the same as in other American Catholic colleges. The Benedictines lay great stress on the classi- cal course which, however, in accordance with the exi- gencies of the times, includes a thorough training in the natural sciences. Some of their colleges also have special departments of music, commerce and military training. In thoroughness the Benedictine colleges in the United States stand second to none. Following in the footsteps of their European ancestors they put great stress on what years of experience have designated as the essen- tials of a thorough education and are not affected by the short-lived educational fads which have in recent years greatly impeded the efficiency of American educational
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institutions. The experience of fourteen hundred years of educational activity has made the Benedictine Order one of the most effective teaching bodies in the world. The names of Monte Cassino, Cluny, Bee, Canterbury, Fulda, Eeichenau, Corvey, etc., are emblazoned in golden letters on the history of European civilization. The Protestant Eeformation and, later, the French Revolu- tion and the high-handed secularization of Benedictine monasteries and schools have temporarily lessened the number of Benedictines and, hence, diminished the extent of their educational activity, but have been unable to wrest from them their proverbial industry and thorough- ness. The great achievements of their forefathers have spurred them on to follow in their footsteps. The late Archabbot Wimmer, who was the first to transplant the Benedictine Order upon the soil of our country, often expressed the desire that the Benedictines should do for the Church of America in our times what they did for the Church of Europe during the Middle Ages. May God grant that this free country of ours will never impede the growth of religious orders which have ever been the great mainstay of the Church and civilization; then the time will come when the ardent desire of Arch- abbot Wimmer will be realized. Meanwhile the Benedic- tine educators will continue their labors in the quiet of their monasteries regardless of earthly praise or material reward, always true to their motto : Ut in omnibus glorifi- cetur Deus,
Michael Ott, 0. S. B. St. John's College,
Collegeville, Minn.
HOW TO STUDY THE HISTORY OF EDUCATION
There are three questions pertinent to his work which every teacher ought to be able to answer. The first is What do you teach? the second, How do you teach? and the third, Why do you teach f The answers will describe more or less fully the content, the method and the ideal of the educational work in which he is engaged.
The first question is easily answered. A teacher is able, without hesitation, to tell us that he is teaching history, or grammar, or physics, or physical culture, or mathe- matics. These are called, very often, the branches taught. The programme of a school, which is a combination of several branches, is called the curriculum. The word cur- riculum is also applied to the total of branches studied in a historical period, or a geographical subdivision of the field of history. Thus, we speak of the curriculum of the medieval schools or the curriculum of the Roman schools. The student of history of education will, therefore, under- stand that by the content, curriculmn, or branches taught, are meant those subjects of study and teaching which have engaged the attention of pupils and teacher in some particular school, or in all the schools of some period or in some locality.
Th« question. How do you teach? is answered by a description of the method used in teaching. Methods, in teaching, as in other activities, may be scientific or unscientific. Unscientific methods are haphazard, more or less instinctive, and individual, or personal. They may be eminently successful, yet they cannot be reduced to formulas or general principles. If the teacher who uses them is called on to justify his practice, he falls back on what he styles common sense. Like Lord Mansfield, who, advising a young man of no legal training but of practical good sense on the matter of a judgeship
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to which the young man had been appointed, said, ^ ^ Give your decision boldly, for it will probably be right, but never venture to assign reasons, for they will almost infallibly be wrong,'* so the teacher whose methods are unscientific recognizes that his success in teaching is not capable of being explained by an appeal to general prin- ciples. On the contrary, scientific methods are based on the study of the growing mind, and on the conclusions of biology, physiology, and psychology. The teacher who uses scientific methods has the advantage of knowing the reason why he adopts a certain practice, or discontinues the use of a certain device. He works intelligently in the best sense of that word. He is less exposed than the unscientific teacher to fall into mistakes, and he is able to impart to others the secret of his success. Scientific methods are not all of recent invention. The past, even the remote past, had some educators who studied in the light of such knowledge as was then available the needs of the developing mind of the child. It is the task, there- fore, of the student of history to study the efforts, suc- cessful or unsuccessful, of educators in former times to fimd a theoretical justification for the methods used in teaching. Neither are all unscientific methods necessarily harmful or useless. The human mind often discovered by intuition or acquired by experience an educational method which it could not justify by appeal to science, but which was successful because, as we now see, it really did con- form to scientific principles. Thus, the savages knew the value of imitation ; the Greeks realized the importance of expression; the Chinese had a clear conception of the practical function of recapitulation, and the Christian Church in its liturgy and practice of piety used many of the methods of modern education which it did not attempt to account for by principles of psychology. It is, consequently, also a part of our task in the history of education to study those methods, to describe how they
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were adopted in an unreflecting way, to show to what they owed their success and to point out how, when elevated, so to speak, to the scientific order, they can be made still more successful.
The question. Why do you teach! is the most difficult to answer. Of course, the inquiry has no reference to the immediate personal motive. ' ^ I teach because I am paid so much a month for teaching, ' ' or ^ ' I teach because my superiors ordered me to do so,'' or ^^I teach because I like the work," or even ^'I teach because I hope in that way to please God, and merit heaven,'' is not the answer that is expected. The question bears, rather, on the gen- eral educative purpose, or the ideal which the teacher has in mind. For instance, *^I teach for the purpose of training useful citizens," ^^I teach in order to develop boys and girls into perfect men and women, " or * ' I teach in order to prepare my pupils for the business of life," are answers that come closer to the intent of the question. All education may be presumed to be a preparation. For what is the pupil to be prepared? The most general answer is **For the life he is to live." The meaning of life will, therefore, determine the educational ideal. The definition, *^ Education is that form of social activity whereby, under the direction of mature minds, and by the use of adequate means, the physical, intellectual and moral powers of the immature human being are so devel- oped as to prepare him for the accomplishment of his life- work here and for the attainment of his eternal destiny, ' \ contains the Christian ideal. The savage and primitive man at the dawn of civilization educated for the physical life alone : to prepare the child to become a useful member of the tribe, to teach him how to procure food and cloth- ing, defend himself against his enemies and cultivate those qualities which made him an acquisition to the group in which he was to live, was the sole aim. The Chinese educated for the civil-religious-domestic order,
Catholic Encyclopedia, Art. ^'Education."
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which was at once the state, the religion and the family, and was not distinct from nature itself. The Hindus educated for the religious-social caste. The Persians and the Spartans educated for the military-civil state. The Greeks and the Romans educated for purely human excel- lence, the former laying stress on the artistic and literary, and the latter on the practical and institutional, type of excellence. Christianity resumed all these phases, physi- cal fitness, domestic virtue, civic virtue, human excellence : it added another element, preparation for man's eternal destiny, and, making the others subservient to this last, it subsumed them all under the principle that the spiritual is supreme, and thus coordinated, articulated and vital- ized them all in one consistent, living ideal. The student of the history of education will find it a most interesting and important portion of his task to trace the succession of these ideals and their results in the countries where they were operative; he will then study the manner in which Christianity superseded them without eliminating them ; finally, he will trace the development of the Chris- tian ideal in its various successive phases. He will note how one phase of the supremacy of spiritual interests was brought out in the struggle between pagan and Christian ideals in the first centuries of our era ; he will find another phase of it in the institution of monasticism ; he will trace its later phases in popular education, guild education, the institutes of chivalry and the rise and growth of the universities.
The study of the succession of educational ideals and of the development of successive phases of the Christian ideal will be the most important part of the student's task, because the ideal always influences both the method and the content in education. The Christian educator, especially, will derive from this study not only a proper appreciation and a deeper understanding of the ideal which inspires his own work, but also considerable assist-
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ance of a practical kind in solving the problems which confront him. He will realize that the study of the his- tory of education does not aim at being informational merely, but that it is essentially formative and should be brought to bear on his own work.
Besides the content, the method and the ideal, there are other items which the student of history will look for in every system of education which he studies. He will be interested in educational institutions. He will mark the beginning and growth of organized effort in education. He will note the attempts at legislation in educational matters ; he will study the provisions made by the social group for the education of its members, the buildings, the salaries for teachers, the social status of the teacher, the differentation of lower and higher schools, the limitations by custom or law of the period of school life, the hygienic provisions, the system of rewards and punishments, and so forth. He will be attracted to the more human side of the problem, especially by the details of school life, and the insight which passages in ancient literature afford into the thoughts and feelings of those who, centuries ago, stood in essentially the same circumstances as he and his pupils do today. He will also be interested in the per- sonality of the great educators who, either in theory or in practice, sought to frame, upbuild or reform educa- tional systems. He will not neglect the writings of these men, contributions to educational literature, containing advice to teachers and pupils, or dissertations on the best methods of imparting knowledge. Even text-books, dry and formal as some of them are, will be of interest so long as they throw light on the tasks which confronted those who went before us. Distance in this case lends, if not enchantment, at least a mild enjoyment to the study of literary specimens which are often devoid of intrinsic power to please. The disordered remnants of a Pelasgian wall have for the historian whose imagination is properly
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instructed an interest which a perfect example of modem architecture would not be likely to possess.
All this has a very considerable cultural value. Besides, it is an excellent corrective of some defects to which the teacher's life exposes him. There is perhaps no other occupation that tends so inevitably as that of teaching to narrow one's outlook on life and hinder the develop- ment of one's interest in the broader fields of literature and art. The study of the historical past furnishes a perspective into which the teacher's own work is made to fit ; the world into which it introduces him, with its strug- gles, its sacrifices, its achievements, its failures, not only teaches him many useful lessons, but makes demands on his sympathies and his loyalty which will not fail to make him a better man and a more efficient teacher.
The mention of loyalty brings us to a question which is of paramount importance for the Christian teacher, espe- cially for the teacher in our Catholic schools. What should be the point of view of the historian of education 1 How is he to reconcile his loyalty to Christian ideals with that impartiality which is a primary requisite in the stu- dent and teacher of history? To answer this question satisfactorily one should first clear up the ideas which one has of both loyalty and impartiality. Loyalty is a species of devotion. It undoubtedly colors one's convictions. But, it is not itself a convicticn : it is rather an inclination or disinclination towards conviction. Any man who is loyal to his friend, or his country, or his college, or his church will be inclined to believe certain facts which are favorable, and disinclined to believe the opposite facts which are unfavorable. When the facts are proved, his loyalty should not go bO far as to prevent him from seeing the truth ; it shows itself rather in the pleasure with which he accepts what is favorable or the pain with which he admits what is unfavorable to the cause. Facts cannot be denied, however much they may be regretted. To
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undo, literally, what has been done is beyond the power of even the most loyal. Loyalty, therefore, to the Chris- tian point of view does not mean obstinate unwillingness to believe anjrthing against the Church. It means merely that, where the opponent of Christianity shows too great eagerness to believe what is discreditable, the Christian historian will accord to the Church that slowness to believe which every man extends to his friend when the friend is under the shadow of accusation. It means that, where the opponent of Christianity exhibits unholy glee at the revelation of a blot on the escutcheon of the Church, the Christian student, admitting the facts in the case, will show a becoming sense of regret. And he will regret the fact more than the revelation of it.
With regard to impartiality, there is little in it except the sound. No historian is completely impartial. There are, indeed, partisans so pronounced that their histories are eulogies, or apologies, or libels, or denunciations, of their favorite heroes or pet aversions. There are histo- rians who are color blind. In contrast to these, a histo- rian is said to be impartial who admits the clear evidence of facts and does not resist the compelling force of his conclusions. In this sense a Christian student of the his- tory of education may be, and should be, as impartial as the opponent of Christianity. He will admit the facts when the evidence compels him to do so. He has nothing to gain by suppressing them, and nothing to fear from the admission of them. ' ^ The truth does not fear the truth, ' ' said Leo XIII, in reference to the publication of the Vatican archives. And in educational matters especially, although the accusations are shouted from the housetops, the Church's record is so noble, her services so signal even in matters not directly covered by her divine charter to ^ ' Teach all nations, ' ' that the admission of all the facts in the case leaves an overwhelmingly large balance on the credit side. ^^Tell the truth and shame the deviP' is a
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somewliat homely maxim which we can take to heart without any intended discourtesy towards our accusers. When, however, the facts are admitted, there remains the task of interpreting the facts. And it is in this task that every historian is more or less a partisan. If a his- torian could bring to ascertained facts a mind completely devoid of conviction, he might be said to interpret them impartially. What really happens is that the historian always interprets the facts in accordance with his own convictions. Hitherto, we have been on the defensive in the matter of the history of education. We have been content, when we were able, to nail a lie, as the saying is, or to point out a flagrant instance of misinterpretation. Too long, unfortunately, we have delayed to tell the story of the Church's educational career as we understand it. Meantime, the story has been told, but with what degree of impartiality our current text-books on the subject bear only too ample witness. The history of education has been written from the point of view of anti-Christian partisan- ship. The party prejudice has not always gone so far as to blind the historian to facts or to induce him to misstate the facts outright. But in almost every instance, so far as English literature on the subject is concerned, there is the partisanship of faulty and hostile interpretation. It is time for us to study the facts with a partisanship of the opposite kind. We have the best right to interpret the facts. We are in the position of the defendant in the suit, and our case, if, largely through our own fault, it has not been heard first, should be heard last, before sentence is pronounced. We have not only the best right in law and honesty of purpose, but the best right in scien- tific method. For we claim to be the heirs of the Church's educational spirit, and, as such, we may be presumed to have a better understanding of her intentions and pur- poses. In America, at least, this point in our favor is
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admitted. We are called on to give our account of what the Church has done, and we are assured a respectful hearing.
Our point of view, therefore, as students of the his- tory of education should be frankly and fearlessly Chris- tian. We should have a proper respect for the stubborn- ness of facts. But in the interpretation of facts we claim the right, which every historian exercises, of putting them in the light in which we see them. Being loyal to our Church, we admit with regret those facts which are not to the credit of men, institutions and epochs which repre- sent her; but we need not hesitate at the same time to read the facts — all the facts, so far as we can ascertain them — as loyal children of the Church. Ideally impartial interpretation is an unattainable dream. This much, how- ever, is in our favor: a partial partisanship of interpre- tation being humanly inevitable, the partisanship of love and loyalty is surely preferable to a partisanship of jealousy and hatred, as light is to be preferred to dark- ness, and, in general, the positive, the constructive, the sanely conservative, 'to the negative, the destructive, the irresponsibly irreverent.
The Christian ideal of education is a synthesis of all the elements contained in pre-Christian ideals, with the addition of the spiritual element, which, as a center of organic unity, articulates all the others into one vital con- ception of the meaning of education. The Christian ideal should, consequently, be used as a test by which to judge the ideals that preceded it, as a standard of comparison by which they may be estimated in their shortcomings as well as their good qualities. It serves also as a principle of unification for the study of the events which took place in the educational world after the advent of Christianity. The supremacy of spiritual interests as enunciated in the question ' * What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole
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world and suffer the loss of his own soulT' is the prin- ciple for which the Christian Church has stood consist- ently throughout her career. The application of it, how- ever, varies with the conditions of each educational epoch. The study of those conditions and of the maimer in which the principle was applied to them will lead to a better understanding of the problems which confront us today and throw light on the policy by which the Church throughout the world is dealing with them.
William Tuener.
TWENTIETH CENTURY PRAISE OF BOOKS
The wise and prudent Saint Dominick, being asked by a curious disciple in what books be had studied to lay the foundations of his great learning, answered: ^'My son, chiefly in the book of charity, for that teaches everything. ' ' Anecdotes such as this sometimes trouble conscientious modern readers, who are not accustomed to have the praise of books conditioned. Jealous readers take alarm at once, and feel obliged to believe either that books are not really a blessing to the world, or that holy men have talked foolishly. Yet in most cases the holy men have not really questioned the value of a good book in good time and place. Saint Dominick found the book of charity open in the quiet library as well as on the peo- pled highway, and his answer is but poorly understood by those who find in it nothing but a narrowing prohibition. He evaded the implied request for advice as to choosing books in order that he might rather give the warning how to read. He was not a worse but a better friend to books for recognizing their comparative insignificance. By admitting them even to a secondary importance in the order of charity, which is so much loftier than the order of intellect, he gave them an intelligible purpose, and hence a lasting value. He placed the act of reading in relation to an end so high that its importance can never be brought in question. This, and not our indiscriminate praise, is true appreciation of books.
Catholic readers in twentieth century America do not, on the whole, value their books too highly. Perhaps they do not value them highly enough ; for the great books, if valued rightly, would often enable them to laugh to scorn the little books attacking faith. But all our books are not great books: matters have but grown worse since an
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eccentric character in one of Disraeli's novels could com- plain with reason that ''nine-tenths of existing books are nonsense, and the only good books are clever refutation/' And readers, Catholic as well as Protestant and infidel, care increasingly less for discrimination. They praise their books in the gross. They seldom make that definite adjustment of importance between a man and his books which is the beginning of reading. And yet a book is not a safe possession on any other terms. For books, though not immediately human, have this much of human nature about them: that they are easily spoiled for use by prosperity.
Viewing the matter in the light of a century of literary history, one perceives that much of our indiscriminate praise of books is but ancient prudery inverted. Reaction against the brutality that is said to have hastened the death of Keats, or the clamorous insular morality that published and exulted over the domestic frailties of Byron and Shelley, runs easily into another extreme. We order things differently today. The modem gentle reader, especially the modern gentle feminine reader, is apt to look with painful seriousness on books as books, and most urgently to belabor whoever dares suggest that books, unlike babies, do not justify their existence merely by being born. And yet good books are so numerous today that readers can only gain by ruthless criticism. No perfervid poet in twentieth century America need sup- press his noble rage because he fears the prudes : he will have them with him. No genius born before his time need fear to be ' ' snuffed out by an article ' ' : the present Mrs. Grundy goes to lectures on advanced thought and bends herself rather to snuff out the old fireside proprieties. The gentle reader who is fluttered by every threatened restriction on reading forgets that the world has moved. Books are not now on suffrance : in reputation, at least,
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they have come into their own. The old problem of bring- ing books to bear on the common life of men is no nearer solution. It is only complicated by the growing modem sentiment that makes respect for books conventional.
It is not true of all books that they *'do preserve as in a vial the purest efficacy and extraction of the living intellect that bred them.^^ The modern writers who use that stately phrase without discrimination could never have originated it. The splendid fervor of a religious human purpose — splendid, though mistaken — glorified for Milton the books in which he saw that purpose reflected, and blinded him to the multitude of dull and evil books which existed in his day as well as in our own. And Mil- ton, as a poet, spoke not literally, but with a poet's license. In the light of the subsequent history of even so enduring a book as ^^ Paradise Losf there is something pathetic in its author's vehement reiteration that ** books are not dead things.'' For the doctrinal intention which was to Milton the life of his book is dead indeed to most modem readers, and all that remain is the beauty and the formal majesty which were to him — ^no pantheist- — only the per- fection of inanimate clay. Those who love beauty more than virtue may hold that this was, indeed, ^^the purest efficacy and extraction of the living intellect" of John Milton. But for the ordinary book no such claim can be made without traducing ordinary human nature.
That the purest efficacy of any living intellect may be preserved in a book is a large assumption. ** Living" is a word of transcendent significance, in spite of all the leveling pretentions of science. If it means anything in connection with intellect it means the vital communicat- ing spirit that moves and thinks, in sharp distinction from the objective communicable matter that is thought and suggested. It may happen that a book preserves a fuller and finer measure of intellectual efficacy than has been set in motion by all the action of its writer's history. It
Twentieth Century Praise of Books 521
does often happen that the influence of a book is almost miraculous; and the fascination in the study of books probably lies in this fact, that here in greater purity and distinctness than in any other enduring sensible med- ium may be traced the record of a power beyond sense. Yet if one is loyal to life as well as to books, one can hardly escape the conviction that the ** purest efficacy of a living intellect*' is something much too fine, too per- sonal, too immediately operative for good and evil to be preserved unweakened to an ink and paper immortality, or to permit of concentration in any vial less sensitive and potent than a conscious human soul.
The relative importance of men and books is preserved in praise such as this of Milton's, by the exaltation of both: sincerity and passion refine true eloquence from mawkishness as by a miracle of instinct. But there is no miracle in the modem indiscriminate praise of books. Milton could praise books highly because he believed in a high religious mission in human life and literature : the modern indiscriminate praise, on the contrary, approves most often such books as leave one doubtful whether life and literature have any mission at all. Milton could become vehement in praising books, because he believed intensely in a difference between good and evil, and thought he saw in books a means of propagating the truth that was good : the modern indiscriminate praise likes to play that good and evil are conventions, and values books in proportion as they represent, not a compelling truth, but a purient and pragmatical nothingness. In absolute contradiction to Milton this modern praise too often feeds respect for books on distrust of human purpose. It makes books spring from an unimaginable, self-sufficing origin, to be the flower of a process finer than human living, as if books — except one great book that lies beyond the range of this discussion — were not made, some by writers and some by readers, but all by men.
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The idea of writing for the sake of writing, or of read- ing for the sake of reading, probably never entered the minds of the master spirits of literature. Says Fulke Greville of Sir Philip Sidney: ''His aim was not writing, even while he wrote ; nor his knowledge moulded for tables or schools, but both his wit and understanding bent upon his heart, to make himself and others, not in words or opinion, but in life and action, good and great.'' We laugh at the moral pretentions of some of our older novel- ists, but such pretentions, though extravagant, were an instructive recognition of the necessity of justifying one's book. It is only in modern times that we have begun, as a distinguished English writer, Frederic Harrison, puts it, ''to pride ourselves on our power of absorbing print, as our grandfathers did on their gift of absorbing port. ' ' It is only since so large a part of mankind has grown sedentary and bilious that we forget the native dignity of life and personality, and descend to overlay our con- sciousness with any lettered page that comes to hand. We &peak the lines of Shakespeare's pedant without per- ceiving the irony of the writer : ' ' Sir, he hath never been fed of the dainties that are bred in a book ; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink; his intellect is not replenished ; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts."
Very great intellects have often a touch of madness, and so do books that are great enough for serious atten- tion. It is well for both that they be made to feel at times the restraining touch of a commonplace human under- standing. The highest compliment a man can pay his books is to hold them to a human accountability, and to recognize that they may be as troublesome to his peace of mind as are his intimate friends. The utmost appre- ciation that can be afforded to genius as genius is finely expressed in a line of the poet Gray :
Twentieth Century Praise of Books 523
*^ Beneath the Good how far — but far above the Great.'' Gray speaks for his own province, of poetry, but the same valuation holds throughout literature. Even his- tory, building professedly on facts and not on imagination, requires its reader to be ever alert, ever ready to match his own firm soul against some challenge of author or material. There is a very noble concession and warning in one of the last public utterances of a great Catholic historian. In his ^^ Lecture on the study of History,'* Lord Acton tells his students : ^ * The weight of opinion is against me when I exhort you never to debase the moral currency, or to lower the standard of rectitude, but to try others by the final maxims that govern your own lives.'' These final maxims persist, while the apparently solid facts of history have a trick of changing. The generally accepted dictum that history must be rewritten for each new generation suggests the cynical reply of Faust to Wagner :
^*My friend, the ages that are past
Are as a book with seven seals made fast.
And what we call the spirit of the age
Is but the spirit of the gentlemen
Who glass their own thoughts in the pliant page.
And image back themselves. ' ' And, indeed, one may say without exaggeration that books are largely a field of conflict between writer and reader as to which shall ^4mage back himself." Lord Acton was in many respects the most learned man and the greatest historian of the last generation, and his devo- tion to the facts of history was the trait of his character which the world knew best. Yet he continues, in the lec- ture already quoted: ** Modern history touches us so nearly, is so deep a question of life and death, that we are bound to find our way through it, and to owe our insight to ourselves." Such a declaration from a sober historian gives value to a paradox which was merely fan-
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tastic, when propounded by an irresponsible mystic. **It is not history that teaches conscience to be honest,'' says AmiePs Journal; *4t is conscience that educates history. Fact is corrupting — it is we who correct it by the persist- ence of our ideal. The soul moralizes the past in order not to be demoralized by it.'' Of course, fact is not cor- rupting— quite the reverse. But facts seen through the clouded lens of a human personality may easily assume the shape and colors of evil, and all book facts are seen through a double lens. For good or evil, then, the soul of the reader must bring with it the light that shall largely determine the effect.
It is really a dull reader who is ever so entirely satis- fied with his book as to hear it praised without impa- tience. ^ ^ For this, I conceive, Phaedrus is the evil of writ- ing, and herein it closely resembles painting. The crea- tures of the latter art stand before you as if they were alive, but if you ask them a question they look solemn and say not a word. And so it is with written discourses. You could fancy they speak as though they were pos- sessed of sense, but if you wish to understand what they say, and if you question them about it, you find them repeating but one and the self-same story. ' ' The greater the book, the greater the sense of incompleteness on fin- ishing it: it must be so, because our deeper longings do not stir to a small suggestion. It is only ignorance that can believe in a library of perfect books : one easily learns the names of the great books^ — one must learn something of the kind at school — ^but one does not easily find time for real acquaintance. Hence comes much of the praise that is scandal in disguise.
Every persistent reader knows something of this expe- rience : a mood in which the good book and the bad book are equally a burden to the soul. The mere reader encoun- ters such an experience despondently, the great creative
Twentieth Century Praise of Books 525
artists turn fiercely for relief in new production; but both are dissatisfied. The mood in question is not to be dispelled by the modern wiseacre's prescription of a change from book to book — that milk for babies : it is a mood to find impediment and disgust in mere literal real- ity: it hates the never-ending physical dull plodding through the resisting mass of a printed page that it knows can only end in shadows and surmises. Books are small indeed when measured starkly with a lonely human soul, and their help in moments of human anguish is seldom other than remote or accidental. The best of them can- not sustain consistently the demands of everyday human intercourse. The confession that our greatest books are weak and imperfect is oftenest a confession of love, but it is none the less a confession of real failure, and must be made by every reader not too dull to risk an aspiration.
The confession of failure in reading is a story as old as history. Plato, in the myth of the Phaedrus from which we have already quoted, would have us believe that the failure was foretold at the very invention of books :
* ' Theuth began, ' this invention, 0 King, will make the Egyptians wiser and better able to remember, it being a medicine I have discovered both for memory and wis- dom.' The King replied: *Most ingenious Theuth, one man is capable of giving birth to an art, another of esti- mating the amount of good or harm it will do in to those who use it. Now you, as the father of letters, have ascribed to them, in your fondness, exactly the reverse of their real effects. For this invention of yours will pro- duce f orgetf nines s in the minds of those who use it, by causing them to neglect their memory, inasmuch as from their confidence in writing they will recollect by the aid of foreign symbols, and not by the natural use of their own faculties. Your discovery, therefore, is a medicine not for memory, but for recollection; for recalling, not
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for keeping in mind. And yon are providing for your disciples a show of wisdom without the reality. For acquiring by your means much knowledge, while in fact they will, for the most part, know nothing at all; and moreover will be disagreeable persons to deal with, as having become wise in their own conceit.''
The same confession is made for every generation of readers, in one form or another, by men who like Plato, think nobly of the soul. Petrarch, at the very summit of the vauntiag Renaiscence, confesses that /^ Books have brought some men to knowledge, and some to mad- ness.'' The long quotation from Plato would lose much of its pertinence for us if we were ignorant of its date. When Socrates, continuing the dialogue with Phaedrus, applies the lesson to ^*you moderns," it is difficult to remember that he is not speaking to the graduates of twentieth century normal schools and reading circles, but to the pupils of the Athenian Sophists, four hundred years before the Christian era.
With all their limitations books are full of marvelous possibilities. Under God's providence they help to shape at once the vast epochal changes of the world, and the most intimate hidden moments of personality. For wis- dom and virtue, for solace and enjoyment, they are indeed a medicine, in spite of Plato's fabling. And yet, of themselves, they are nothing — as Plato wished to warn us. One human mind lends them a meaning, and another human mind must color and enlarge that meaning into life. That which a man's own habit of life and thinking dispose him to look for in a book, that he will almost certainly find — if not by attraction or imitation, then by mere repulsion. Not our books, then, but **our acts, our angels are, or good or ill" and '* these fatal shadows" which walk by us even in our reading determine for us what we shall take from our books. Insistent deference
Twentieth Century Praise of Books 527
to books as books is hence an insult to the human will. It is a denying of personal responsibility. Man cannot afford to look directly at books for themselves, but only as Thoreau said he looked at nature, ^ ' with the side of his eye.'' Or, rather, man must look boldly through and beyond books to the religion and humanity which they serve. He must come to his books full charged with high personal convictions, with assured hope, with sweetness and light within him, with heroic passion and beauty and joyousness in his own life — or he will find none of these things in his reading. Or, at least, he must come with the humble desire of these things, that he may even see their brightness from afar. And so, in any case, his study must be first and chiefly in the book of charity — ^^for that teaches everything. ' '
The most immoderately worded praise of books prob- ably falls far short of bringing any reader to a fitting appreciation of the best that has been written. No praise that inspired readers with a noble, happy purpose could be immediate. It is well to assure the world again and again, even the book-ridden world of today, that good reading is worth while. But it is never well to throw the praise of books into terms of life, and to depreciate life in order that books may be more highly valued. Life, to be respected, must be free to rise above its accidents. And pessimism, the lack of respect for life, is already a crying evil of our age. An age of pessimism may praise books, but it cannot value or use them; for books as the interpreters of life, can be for such an age no more than mirrors of nothing.
James A. Hartigan. South Boston, Mass.
DE LA SALLE, FRANCKE'S PROTOTYPE
In the leading article of the Review for March, the Reverend William Turner, S. T. D., while making an opportmie and forcible plea for a more thorough exploita- tion of the original sources of educational history,^ adduces many reasons why we should have a history of education from the pen of a Catholic. Existing treatises on the history of education are shown by Dr. Turner to be inadequate, deficient, and, in some instances, false. The exceptions taken by the reviewer to Painter's His- tory of Education are particularly to the purpose. In that volume of the International Education Series, there is another lacuna which should not be permitted to go un- noticed; it is the omission of all reference to St. John Baptist De La Salle. This hiatus in '^A History of Edu- cation'' is all the more amazing, as Mr. Painter lavishes unstinted commendation on A. H. Francke for a line of endeavor which had been originated, and even more com- pletely followed, by St. De La Salle.
In the account Painter gives of Francke, we read : ^ * In 1691 the University of Halle was founded, and the fol- lowing year, through the influence of Spener, Francke was appointed Professor of Greek and Oriental Lan- guages, and at the same time pastor of a suburban church. Here in Halle he accomplished a great work, which stands in educational history almost without a parallel. The beginning was very humble. The poor were accustomed to assemble on Thursday before the parsonage to receive alms. The thought occurred to Francke that the occa- sion might be improved for religious instruction. He invited the crowd of old and young into his house, and along with bread administered spiritual food. He learned
^"Sources of the History of Education," by William Turner, The Catholic Educational Review, March, 1911, pp. 199-211.
De La Salle, Francke's Prototype 529
the condtions of the poorer classes, and his heart was touched by their ignorance and need. He deprived him- self of comforts to administer to their necessities. ' '^
In connection with this excerpt from Painter's History of Education, published in 1886, consider the extract below, taken from Canon Blain's Life of St. John Bap- tist De La Salle, first published at Eouen in 1733.
^^1684 was a year of famine in and around the city of Eheims. The starving poor from the country round about flocked into the capital of the province and, together with the indigent of the town, made of Eheims a veritable hospital. * * * That year, so direful, was a year of heroic virtue and of extraordinary merit for John Bap- tist De La Salle; for it furnished him the occasion of practising the greatest of the corporal and of the spiritual works of mercy. * * * He gave away a large patri- mony and deprived himself even of the means of liveli- hood for the relief of those in distress. It was hard to say which was more pleasing to him ; to become poor, or to be rich so that he might assist the poor. * * *
He did not, however, distribute his wealth at hazard. * * * The charitable priest, seeing assembled under his eyes so many destitute persons, studied their char- acters in order to give them suitable advice. By pious remonstrances, prudent corrections and heartfelt sym- pathy, he strove, while relieving their bodily wants, to heal their souls of the maladies to which they were a prey. A distribution of alms took place at his house every morning. * * * Become poor in assisting the poor, he himself had later to go from door to door to beg the necessaries of life.''^
Francke took up his residence in Halle in 1692. It was accordingly after that date that he dispensed bread and
""'A History of Education," by F. V. N. Painter, pp. 258-9, reprint of 1904.
°La Vie du Bienheureux Serviteur de Dieti, Jean-Baptiste De La Salle, Instituteur des Freres des Ecoles Chretiennes, par M. TAbbe Jean-Baptiste Blain, Pubilee en 1733, Reeditee a Paris en 1889, pp. 146-7.
530 The Catholic Educational Eeview
instruction to his poor visitors. Now, in 1684, eight years before Francke settled in Halle, St. John Baptist De La Salle had done in Eheims all that Francke did later in the Saxon city on the Saale. The Saint gave away a large fortune and devoted himself by vow for a long lifetime to the arduous labors of schoolmaster. Francke deprived himself of comforts to administer to the necessities of the poor ; St. John Baptist De La Salle had eight years pre- viously deprived himself of even necessaries for the relief of the indigent, and that he might, in the interests of the most needy class of society, found a teaching congregation on the enduring cornerstone of evangelical poverty. Francke did something for the people of one small town ; St. De La Salle founded schools in Eheims, Paris, Eouen, Marseilles, Grenoble and Eome, and moreover, he insti- tuted a society of teachers that has long since spread the world over. With all these differences of priority, excel- lence and universality in favor of St. John Baptist De La Salle, he gets no mention whatsoever from Mr. Painter in *^A History of Education ; ^ ^ whereas an imitator, Francke, is credited with methods that had been devised and publicly followed years before by the founder of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.
Here we have a suppression of important facts and an undue prominence given to such as are merely second- ary— a distortion all the stranger as it proceeds from a presumably enlightened source. If such wrongs can not be entirely righted, it were well that they should at least be exposed. The publication of a Catholic source book of the history of education would do much to eradicate error, to advance the cause of truth, and to bring to light hitherto unrecognized contributions to the developing science of pedagogy.
John J. Tracy. Clason Point Military Academy, West Chester, New York City.
SUEVEY OF THE FIELD
If there is any one lesson taught by the history of civilization in such a manner as to leave no room for doubt or misinterpretation it is that reckless and whole- sale experimenting in the field of education should not be permitted. Of course, progress in education, as in other fields, demands that experiment be employed to test the validity of theory, but the experiment must be conducted with all the care which the gravity of the situation demands; and it should be limited to as small a number of children as the nature of the case will permit, for under the best of circumstances the happiness and wellbeing of the children experimented upon are at stake, and where no restrictions are placed upon the numbers the stability of the social order may easily be undermined. Whether it be due to the intoxication caused by our incalculable natural resources or to the fact that our
population, upon whom ultimately rests EECKLEss the responsibility of government, is made
EDUCATIONAL Up largely of the millions who have been EXPEEiMENTs pushcd out of oldcr countries and have not
yet had time in this country to develop respect for authority or to set up sane standards, it re- mains true that we have been indulging in educational experiments with a recklessness and on a scale that have never before been attempted by any civilized nation. However, if not in justification, at least in palliation of this procedure, it should be borne in mind that our situa- tion in this country is characterized by many special diffi- culties. Our population is heterogeneous to the last extreme, our cities are the meeting-ground of the nations of the earth. Out of the babel of tongues, the conflict of national customs and the clash of divergent religious beliefs the schools are called upon to develop a homoge-
532 The Catholic Educational Eeview
neous nation. The history of education provides no adequate solution for the difficulties which confront us, and hence it was to be expected that educators would resort to theory and experiment for light in the shaping of our policies. It is not, therefore, the fact of experi- menting, but its extent and recklessness, that is open to objection.
Our democratic form of government rests on the in- telligence of the individual citizen and hence it is most natural that we should adopt the policy of COMPROMISE affording to each child bom to the nation an AND THE opportunity of obtaining at least an ele- LiTTLE RED moutaiy education. Since English is the scHOOLHousE language of the country, all of our children should be taught its use ; otherwise, they will not be able to take an intelligent part in the life of the commonwealth. Under these circumstances, the common school in which the children of every nationality should meet on an equal footing to study our language and to learn the duties of citizenship seemed to be demanded. Prudence might have suggested the advisability of test- ing the plan thoroughly on a small scale, but with our characteristic impatience of delays we straightway de- creed that the common school should be called into exist- ence in every village and hamlet in the land. And once this decree of the sovereign people went forth, it were high treason to question its wisdom. The fact that it was a compromise begotten of dire necessity was soon for- gotten, and the little red schoolhouse was enthroned on the altar of the nation.
In several of the countries of Europe the children are bi-lingual or multi-lingual, but in the common schools of this country the children acquire a very MISSING AN questionable mastery of English alone. We OPPORTUNITY cannot teach all the foreign languages, and as one nationality has as good a right as another to have its language taught, if any language
Survey of the Field 533
other than English is to find a place in the curriculum, we compromise by teaching English alone and straightway convince ourselves that this is the best conceivable sys- tem and look down with pity on the ignorance of poor benighted foreigners, who grow up with the easy use of several languages. Nor are we concerned with the com- ments sometimes passed upon us by students of education who point out the wonderful opportunity for learning the various languages afforded our children through the cosmopolitan character of our school population, and the incomprehensible neglect of our natural resources in this direction by those who are responsible for our educational system.
Again, we are so anxious to make patriots or ward poli- ticians in the shortest possible time out of the multitudes who annually reach our shores in search HASTY of gold that we cannot wait for our
AMERICANIZATION customs to soHdify or for our traditions to take root in the lives of their chil- dren. We deem it our chief duty to remove from the chil- dren of our immigrant population all trace of the national customs and family traditions that for countless genera- tions served in guiding the footsteps of their forefathers through the formative period of childhood and youth to secure manhood. That the children lose their respect for authority and their reverence for parents does not seem to concern us. Since the education which we give our children in the public schools usually results in depriving them of virtues that were long held to be necessary to the
wholesome development of their characters, we STRANGE immediately conclude that we have made another VIRTUES great discovery. What was formerly supposed
to be virtue is now seen to be vice, and what many reactionaries and old fogies believed to be vice, we now know to be virtues. Mr. LaEue, former Superin- tendent of Schools in Augusta, Maine, assures us that *^ so-called irreverence, disobedience, and impudence are
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but the first crude expressions of a fiery, straightforward, independent nature — something to thank God for, not to wail over.''*
In the matter of religion, as in that of language and national customs, we proceeded without hesitation. It was apparent that the various forms of re- A FATAL ligion which counted their adherents among COMPROMISE our citizcns could not all be taught in the school. Horace Mann found the remedy in banishing religion from the school and leaving the reli- gious instruction of the children to the churches. It is true that the Catholics and the Lutherans protested, but their protest went unheeded. They built and supported their own schools so that religion might be developed in the hearts of their children and enthroned as the guar- dian of morals and the saving influence in forming the characters of our future citizens. The proposal of the Catholics and Lutherans to have denominational schools supported out of the public funds met with little favor among the denominations that feared the Catholic Church, through her teaching orders, would thus gain an undue advantage. While it was suspected that the banish- ing of religious instruction from the schools might weaken the religious life of the nation, it was thought better to compromise, even at this cost ; if they could not have the whole child, like the false claimant before the throne of Solomon, they demanded their half, and as a consequence religion died in the hearts of the children.
Seventy years of this experiment have resulted in emp- tying our churches and in filling our prisons. We are not
daunted by the fact that during the last decade GLORYING we avcragcd 147 felonious murders per million IN OUR per annum, as against 3 in Canada, and 14 as SHAME the highest record in Europe. We have more
divorces in a year than all the rest of the civil- ized world. Our carelessness of human life permits an
*Daniel Wolford LaRue, The Church and the Public Schools, The Educational Review, May, 1909.
Survey of the Field 535
industrial holocaust annually which so far transcends the fatalities in other countries as to stagger the imagiaation. But all this is not sufficient to cause our unalterable faith in the value of our plan to waver for a moment. In fact, we have forgotten all about the pitiful compromise in our action and hail the policy of Horace Mann as the ' * great- est educational discovery of the century.'' We move so rapidly in the van of progress that we are a little ashamed of France because it took her so long to adopt our policy of secularization, and we pity Germany be- cause, in spite of her evident progress in other matters, she is still so far under the dominance of superstitution that she insists on religion being taught in her schools. That patriotism wanes, that corruption and graft run riot in our municipal politics, that intellectual and aesthetic standards are being steadily lowered among the masses of our people, that crime is multiplying beyond measure, — none of these things, nor all of them together, are sufficient to make us pause and reconsider the wisdom of our policy. We are deeply sorry, in fact, for our benighted English cousins, for as Professor Dewey tells us, ' ^ Nothing, I think, struck the American who followed the debates on the last English educational bill with more emphasis than the fact that even the more radical upon the Liberal side disclaimed, almost with horror, any intention of bringing about the state of things which we, upon this side, precisely take for granted as normal — all of us except Lutherans and Eoman Catholics.''
We loudly proclaim our privilege of free speech and independent thinking; nevertheless, there are certain
things which we, as American citizens, THE MELTING must hold as too sacred for discussion, POT OP THE and among these may be numbered the NATIONS doctrines that the permanence of our
democratic institutions demands the edu- cation of all our people, and that this education should concern itself chiefly with the eradication of the national
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and religious characteristics of the people who come to our shores from other lands. Our chests swell with pride as we declare that the public school is the alembic through which all the best qualities of the nations of the world are
carried over into the formation of the Amer- A GEOwiNG ican citizen. In spite of our assurance, discontent however, there are not wanting symptoms of
approaching change. For the past few years a healthy discontent with ourselves and with our educa- tional system is beginning to develop in all parts of the country. Many of the Protestant denominations are com- ing to realize their mistake in consenting to the banishing of religion from the schools, and are looking about to find some means of retrieving their losses. Serious men of all shades of religious belief, as well as those A NEW FORM who acknowledge no religious affiliations, OF AN OLD are demanding that more thorough in-
FALLACY struction in morals be given in the schools.
It is true that we are still very largely under the domination of the old delusion that knowl- edge and virtue are synonymous, and so we are attempt- ing to stem the swelling tide of immorality in our school population by giving thorough instruction in sex hygiene to our babies. We have grown profoundly discontented with the output of our schools when the children are judged from the standpoint of efficiency, either as private individuals or as public servants, and a reconstruction of the whole system which will permit the introduction of vocational training in the grammar grades is being demanded.
This general unrest and dissatisfaction with ourselves and our achievements in the field of education is a hopeful sign. It is true that we might have ABSENCE OF THE more reason to expect immediate re- sciENTiFic TEMPER sults if the Scientific temper con- trolled our experimenting, but the opposite seems to be the case. In educational matters we
Survey of the Field 537
do not seem to have outgrown the child stage, where assertion passes over into conviction without warrant of analysis or proof, where a single idea dominates the mind to the exclusion of all modifying principles, where conse- quences are not calculated in advance, and where results of actual achievements are neither measured nor set down for the guidance of others. The picture of ourselves to be seen in the mirror which Dr. Luther Gulick holds up to us is not flattering. In a recent address before the Con- gress of the American School Hygiene Association he says: ^^What is the best age for a child to enter school? This is a question that could be definitely answered if we could secure adequate data on the subject. Galton and Karl Pearson have given us the tools — life itself gives us
the material — of obtaining such data. THINGS WE We need only the opportunity. I ven-
SHOULD KNOW turc the assertion that almost every
person in this room has convictions upon the subject, and yet that these convictions are based upon a few personal experiences in each case. . My point is this : that neither school men nor physicians nor parents are competent of judging such questions as this ex-cathedra. Theories and convictions can never solve such problems ; their only solution lies in a search- ing analysis of existing conditions; in measuring results in a sufficient number of cases to arrive at definite con- clusions. Such investigations should be conducted in ac- cordance with modem scientific methods.''
We entirely agree with Dr. Gulick. We are confronted in our public schools and in our Catholic schools with many weighty problems which are pressing for solution. They cannot be solved offhand by the ex-cathedra pro- nouncements of sciolists, nor can they be brushed aside under the pretext that they have all been solved in the past, for the problems to which we refer are the direct outgrowth of the profound social and economic changes
^Journal of Education, May 11, 1911, p. 511.
538 The Catholic Educational Eeview
that are taking place in our own generation. Again, the scientific spirit has been slow in its invasion of the field of education and satisfactory data for the science of edu- cation are still very meagre. Dr. Gulick is hardly exag- gerating the case when he says ^^It is concerning the most fundamental questions, moreover, that we are still at sea. We do not know the number of hours a day at which the child can make the most progress at each age. There is no one trying to find out, so far as I know. We do not know how many subjects a child can study to advantage at each age. We do not even know the most effective and economic size of a class at various ages. It might be, for example, that in a class of seventy children each child would get so little instruction that a number of them would be held back ; and this would cost the school system more than if there had been only fifty in the class. We do not know the number of months in the year that chil- dren should attend school; yet we compel all children to go to school upon the assumption that we do know. ' * To this the Doctor adds a long list of the things which we do not know in the field of education, and which we should know if we used ordinary prudence and were guided by the scientific spirit. He points out the fact that we spend over $500,000,000 a year on public education and fail to make any provision to deal with the scientific side of the problems presented. ^^We see the significance of exam- ining our coal to be sure we are getting the best and the cheapest ; we do not see the significance of examining the output of our school system to be sure that we are getting the best results from our expenditure. ' '
And yet from the Doctor's own testimony the present situation is not without hope, since there is evidently a
growing consciousness that something is A HOPEFUL wrong and that it should be set right. ^'Am sign I overstating the facts, *' he asks, ^'when I
say that there is scarcely a city in America that is satisfied with its public schools? Here in New
Survey of the Field 539
York City an investigation has been proposed ; and those who follow educational matters know that in city after city severe criticisms of the school system are constantly coming up. Even school men themselves disagree when they come together to discuss these questions ; you cannot get a group of education people together without having a controversy upon some one of these problems. As in- dividuals, in fact, we cannot settle these matters to our own satisfaction. They can only be settled by ascertain- ing results by measurements of what we are doing. ' ^
There is scarcely anything in the field of education which is more significant of the unrest of the present than
the change of attitude which is beginning A SIGNIFICANT to manifest itself on the question of co- change OF education. A short time ago it would ATTITUDE liave been difficult to find any one amongst
us brave enough to challenge the wisdom of pursuing the policy of coeducation in all our schools. Our state supported schools are for all the people, and hence their doors should be open alike to boys and girls. It was taken for granted by many that this necessarily implied coeducation. Commissioner Harris tried the ex- periment of coeducation in the high schools under his jurisdiction in St. Louis when the movement began and found to his surprise that the difficulties anticipated did not appear. From that time to the end of his career he threw all the weight of his great influence into the scales in favor of coeducation. Our educators, in a full-throated chorus, proclaimed to the world the great results that we were achieving through this policy : economy, close grad- ing, the emancipation of woman, the removal of immor- ality, etc. That the nations of Europe laughed at us seemed to have no other effect than to confirm us in the belief that we were ahead of our time. During the past few years, however, signs of discontent with the policy of coeducation have begun to appear in widely scattered parts of the field of education.
540 The Catholic Educational Review
In 1905 Dr. Shields, of the Catholic University, dis- cussed various phases of coeducation in a series of arti- cles* which emphasized the unnatural- THB policy of ucss and the evil effects of this policy COEDUCATION duriug the period of adolescence. In
the following year Dr. G. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University, wrote a strong article against coeducation in our secondary and higher institu- tions, which was answered by President Jordan, of Leland Stanford University. About the same time the Univer- sity of Chicago adopted the policy of segregation. Boston, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston and New Orleans never wholly yielded up their high schools to coeducation. In New England the sentiment against coeducation has been growing steadily during the past few years. In 1909 ten coeducational colleges located in New England, exclusive of Wesleyan and Tufts, counted only 1,136 women undergraduate students, as against 4,877 in the corresponding departments of the separate colleges for women. In the same year Wesleyan Univer- sity declared against coeducation, and in the year follow- ing (1910) Tufts College attracted the attention of the educators of the nation by abandoning the plan of coed- ucation. ^^The action was taken in accordance with the recommendations of a committee which had been ap- pointed for a complete investigation of the problem as related to this institution. In pursu- TEiED AND aucc of their purpose, the committee
FOUND WANTING frccly cousultcd the members of the faculty of Liberal Arts, and also repre- sentatives of the associations of graduates of both sexes. The report submitted comprised a full statement of the reasons for the change recommended, many of which were peculiar to the institution immediately concerned. The conviction was expressed by the committee that there is
♦Crackers and Cheese papers, syndicated for the Catholic Associated Press. Published in book form under the title "The Education of Our Girls," New York, 1907.
Survey of the Field 541
a fundamental difficulty 4n the way of success of coedu- cation in Tufts College, and that this difficulty lies in and pervades the whole student body, growing stronger rather than diminishing.' It appeared from the investigation that the sentiment against coeducation prevented many staunch supporters of the college from sending their own daughters to Tufts, and, in many cases, their sons also. Naturally, such persons would not recommend Tufts to others.*** The earnestness of the committee in avoiding half-way measures is made evident in their report, from which we quote the following : * * It is our conviction that if and when any move for the segregation of the women in Tufts College is undertaken it must be complete. . . . Your committee, after carefully weighing and considering all the phases of the matter as herein set forth, respect- fully present: That, in their opinion, the best interests of this institution require a separation of the sexes. That the best way of accomplishing this is by the establish- ment of an independent college for women. That the importance of the matter is so great that even though the financial resources are not at this moment at hand to meet the extra cost, the action should be taken at the earliest possible moment, and efforts be made at once to secure the necessary funds therefor. ' *
During the past four or five years several experiments in segregation in the high schools of the middle west have been undertaken. The most notable THE ENGLEwooD of thcse is that of the Englewood EXPERIMENT High School, CMcago, conducted by
Principal Armstrong, which ^^has not only attratced wide attention, but has been followed in several other high schools; hence it may be said to rep- resent a tendency of more than passing importance. . . . There are, however, certain problems pertaining to the instruction of young people during the adolescent period which have been recognized by all teachers, and for which,
♦Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1910, Vol. I, p. 131.
542 The Catholic Educational Review
in the opinion of Mr. Armstrong, segregation offers the best solution. The first of these problems is that of the immaturity of boys as compared with girls at the usual age of entrance upon the high school. In respect to this difference Mr. Armstrong says: ^When the boy comes to the high school at about fourteen he is from one to two years less mature than the girls of the same age, and so is unable to approach the work with the same degrees of seriousness and will power.' The second problem to be considered is the difference between the two sexes in respect to predominant interests and mental capacity. *In all the languages,* says Mr. Armstrong, *the girl excels. The power of verbal memory being stronger and her patience with such a task being greater, she is better adapted to learn a language. ... In all sciences the boy has the advantage in spite of his lack of general maturity. He is a keener observer and a DisTUEBiNG morc logical reasoner. The girl needs a THE BALANCE morc elementary course to train her pow- ers to see and classify. The boy loves to try experiments, and so is capable of doing much more work in that line. ' From the excess of girls over boys in the high school classes it follows, according to Mr. Arm- strong, that ^the methods of the recitation have under- gone an unconscious evolution to adapt them to the girl type.' This explains in part, he thinks, the lack of In- terest shown by boys in high school studies and their early withdrawal from the schools.''*
A prominent German educational expert, after devot- ing some years to the observation and study of the
problem of coeducation in this coun- EDUCATiNG BOYS try, remarked to the writer that he in girls' SCHOOLS was convinced that no such a thing
existed in the United States as co- educational high schools and colleges, that the institutions
♦Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1910, Vol. I, pp. 126-7.
Survey of the Field 543
which bear this name were in reality women's colleges to which Americans very foolishly entrusted the education of their boys. In spite of all such objections, however, the policy of coeducation would be likely to hold its own, so much a part of our educational system has it become, were it not for the widespread movement for vocational training. ' ^ So far as can be judged at this incipient stage of the movement,'' says Commissioner Brown, ^'it is likely to lead to the provision of separate schools or de- partments for boys and girls at the moment when voca- tional specialization begins." In an address before the New England Women's Club,* Dr. Snedden, State Com- missioner of Education in Massachusetts, made some very suggestive statements. ^* Vocational education for girls is no less necessary in modern society than voca- tional education for boys. All women in civilized society should be workers and producers, and in order that they may work and produce well, they should have training
along the special lines of their aptitudes and VOCATIONAL probablc fields of vocational effort. When TRAINING it is said that all women should be workers FOR WOMEN and producers, it is, of course, understood
that the largest single vocation for women is that of homemaking, with all that that implies. Con- sequently, vocations for women may be divided into two classes — the homemaking and the wage earning. . . . A few conclusions, then, with reference to the vocational education of girls are manifest. As far as practicable the period up to sixteen should be reserved for school life, and along with the necessary liberal education the latter years of this period should be made fairly rich in the vocational education which will contribute to health and mastery of the home arts and the social knowledge which may later function in the homemaking. At the
*Boston Evening Transcript, December 37, 1909.
544 The Catholic Educational Eeview
same time, it must be realized that the girl must become a wage earner in some calling which will claim her atten- tion for anywhere from five to eight or ten years. As far as practicable, those vocations should be sought for girls, preparation for which is not too far removed from ultimate efficiency in the home, but it must be frankly recognized that the vast majority of wage-earning call- ings to-day opening to young women have very little bear- ing on home efficiency.^'*
What could not be brought about in the name of culture, of morality, of religion, or by an appeal in the name of science to the laws of mental development is likely to be accomplished without difficulty as soon as it is asked for on economic grounds. The increase of wage-earning capacity and industrial efficiency is a phrase to conjure with in this land of dollars and cents. When money speaks, we are willing to look into the case, and, if need be, pronounce our nation-wide experiment a failure.
There are not wanting signs of dissatisfaction with the policy of coeducation from quite another point of view. In the Presidential campaign of 1896 it UNLOOKED FOR was insisted that free silver would in- RESULTS evitably result in driving all the gold out
of the country. In a somewhat analogous manner, coeducation seems to be resulting in preventing our boys from going through the high schools, which are at present crowded with girls ; it resulted also in banish- ing men teachers from our elementary schools, and they are rapidly disappearing from our high schools. A more abundant supply and a lower wage seem to be the deter- mining factors in the rapidly growing feminization of our elementary and high school faculties. Miss Porritt, in
*For a more extended discussion of this phase of the subject, see the last four chapters of The Education of Our Girls, viz., The Vocations of Woman, Domestic Science, The Woman's College of the Future and The Homemakers of the Future, pp. 186-291.
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a remarkably forceful article in the Educational Review, May, 1911, points out the inevitable deterioration in the citizenship of the country resulting from entrusting the education of our boys exclusively to women, who are not enfranchised and, therefore, are not citizens. The objections which she points out are not confined to the period of adolescence, but apply with equal if not greater force to the elementary schools. Her arguments are well worth considering. ^' There is one side of the question which is curiously neglected; although it is an aspect of the most serious import to the future of the nation, and that is the political consequence of putting the training of our citizens and voters — our future representatives in the state legislatures and in Congress, our future Presi- dents and Cabinet Ministers — into the hands of a class that consists of individuals who in the full sense of the word are not citizens, and who have no part or lot in the politics and government of the country. Greece used her slaves as tutors for the sons of free men. Eome also put education into the hands of a slave class, and, naturally enough, as these slave-taught youths grew up, they failed to measure up to the traditions of their free forefathers ; they lost the habit of government and the power of ruling over great nations; and the glory of Greece departed, and Rome fell beneath the onslaught of the free men from the north. ' ^
What was felt from the remotest times to be true and was expressed in such axioms as *^ Example is better than
precept'' has been set forth in our COEDUCATION AND day in scientific formulation. We are THE LAWS OF assured that freedom from the rigid-
iMiTATioN ity of instinct is gained only through
imitation and that imitation is the root of originality. The Romans and the Greeks, there- fore, should have foreseen the consequences of entrusting
546 The Catholic Educational Review
the education of their sons to men whose spirits had been broken by defeat, and from whose enchained souls cour- age had departed. But if they were blameworthy, what should be said of us who have before our eyes the expe- rience of these nations and the clear demonstrations of biological science? It is true that we do not entrust the education of our sons to slaves; we have chosen women instead. Do we select as our women teachers young la- dies of masculine character and masculine virtues? We shrink from the thought, for such a person would be a caricature on both men and women. If our teachers, on the contrary, are, as we know them to be, the purest types of womanhood in our midst, then the inevitable con- sequence, unless science and history alike lie to us, is the moulding of our boys on feminine models. The result can hardly fail to be marked by deteriorations in many direc- tions.
Miss Porritt, commenting on the English educational system, says, ^^from infancy the boys of the governing classes were removed from feminine in- FEMiNizATioN fluencc and put under the care of men. Their training and traditions were wholly masculine, and all through their boyhood they were taught to look forward to taking part in the government of their country as their natural and proper career; and to con- sider, in the words of Dr. Arnold of Eugby, one of the greatest pedagogues of the English-governing classes of the nineteenth century, Hhe desire of taking an active share in the great work of government is the highest earthly desire of the ripened mind.' In this country it can hardly be said that there is any tendency to rank politics as the most desirable of careers. . . . Politics is frequently considered the special concern of the ward- heeler and party-boss, and as scarcely worthy of the attention of the young man who is making choice of
Survey of the Field 547
his life-work. And the reason is not far to seek. During the most impressionable years of the life of our boys they are left almost entirely to feminine influence. Fathers in the United States have almost abdicated from parental authority. It is the mother who rules the home, who trains the boys as well as the girls, and who is the chief source of the moral ideals and aspirations of every mem- ber of the rising generation. Nor does the feminine regime cease when the boys go to school. . . . Here women teach the boys and girls, not only in the primary and grammar grades, but also in the high schools. It is true that there are some men teachers in the high schools and many principals in the grammar schools; still, at the age of fifteen or sixteen, an age which sees the ending of school life for by far the larger proportion of our future voters, the boy's education has been begun, continued, and ended by women, and his contact with men — father, teacher, or school principal — has so far been slight and distant, in comparison with his contact with his mother and his women teachers.''
After pointing out the inherent impossibility of form- ing citizens, at least with a man's idea of citizenship, in schools taught by women, who do not THE need op enjoy the franchise. Miss Porritt puts MEN teachers the pith of the matter in this brief para- graph: *^This, however, is a small mat- ter, because whatever line she takes, it may safely be concluded that she will make very little impression on the minds of her boy pupils. Boys are quick to distinguish shams from realities, and they are pretty certain to set down the political theories and high-sounding lessons of patriotism that come from the lips of their unenfran- chised teacher as all right for her — she is not in the game — ^but in no way applicable to themselves, not at all to be remembered or acted upon when they step out into the men's world of politics and business."
548 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Our boys in schools taught by women are not furnished with models which they can consistently copy as to manly bearing and civic duty. Their masculine POLITICAL nature instinctively rejects the woman-
coNSEQUENCEs modcl in these respects, and when they leave school the only guiding force within them, in either of these essential respects, is a blind re- action against the feminine type which too often develops in them the characteristics of the hoodlum and the ward- heeler. Miss Porritt suggests as one of the means of remedying this situation the enfranchisement of the women teacher. While this might help, it certainly would not correct the whole evil. The fact of the matter re- mains, and always will remain, that our boys need the example and the influence of men teachers if they are to be manly men and patriotic citizens. Coeducation and the almost exclusive employment of women teachers in the elementary schools are two experiments, or should we say one experiment on a gigantic scale, which we have in- dulged in with our usual complacency and the evil results of which we are only beginning to realize.
The Catholic Church has always aimed at providing her children with teachers of their own sex, and if, as is the case at present in this country, she is THE CATHOLIC uuable to supply a sufficient number of men IDEAL teachers, or to provide the financial re-
sources for the maintenance of separate schools, she at least realizes that she is dealing with com- promise in so far as she indulges in coeducation. She permits it only as a temporary expedient while she prays for the increase of vocations to the teaching orders of men. But even as the case stands, with the heavy financial han- dicap under which our schools labor, we can point with pride to the splendid work in the field of education in this country that is being carried on by the various teach- ing orders of men.
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All our teaching Brotherhoods stand in need of a large increase in their membership, to meet the present de- mands. That the grace of vocation is the cultivation given in sufficient measure to meet the or VOCATIONS needs of the Church is not to be doubt- ed. All that is necessary, therefore, in order to recruit sufficiently the ranks of our teaching Brotherhoods, is to have placed before our boys in clear light the splendid educational work that awaits them as religious teachers. Their enthusiasm and the love of God and country which fills their hearts will do the rest.
DISCUSSION
The aim of this department of the Review is to supply our teachers with practical suggestions for the conduct of classroom exercises. Ex- perienced and successful teachers may, through these pages, extend a helping hand to the army of faithul workers in the field of education. Brief discussions of practical points are invited. As far as practica- ble, brief answers to teachers' questions will be given by the editors.
ACTION AND THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE
How can action work and motor training in general he rendered serviceable in the teaching of language?*
Action work and motor training can be made service- able in the teaching of language because both bring the child into actual contact with things. In this way the sensations and perceptions are made clear and strong; the paths of the nerve currents are deepened; the apper- ception masses enriched and completed. Action work is especially helpful in developing the imagination and in improving the memory. The more perfect the mental picture thus produced the more readily and surely will the child learn the necessary symbols, since they bring back memories of past actions, and, in accordance with the principle '^the presence in consciousness of appro- priate feeling is indispensable to mental assimilation, ' ' these pleasant memories aid the child in incorporating into his mental life the new materials and render express- ion in some form imperative. The child is rarely willing to express himself on any subject until his knowledge is ready to overflow and then he will recite, write, draw, or make anything that will give expression to his mental content. This points to the necessity of giving the mind material on which to work, which is normally accom-
*The answers to this and the following question were submitted as part of the correspondence work on Lesson XXI (Expression Through Action), of the Psychology of Education.
Discussion 551
plislied through the functioning of the senses. Dr. Shields tells us that ^^ sentient phenomena, transfigured by the intellect, issues in the arts, in articulate speech, and in moral conduct, '' and Professor Baldwin says that ^^ every sensation or incoming process tends to bring about action or outgoing process. ' '
While it is true that the normal and immediate motor path of sensation in general leads to expression through action, nevertheless, much of the sentient phenomena that holds the interest of the child is of a linguistic nature and therefore finds its immediate channel of expression ter~ minating in oral or written language. The value of teaching language in this way lies not only in the fact that it is more pleasant and fruitful but in the further fact that it gives many opportunities for simultaneous sense-training and muscular exercise. According to Pro- fessor O'Shea, the younger the child the greater the need of giving him an opportunity to freely use hands, feet and voice in educative ways. ^^When the child begins to study language, his natural activities are apparently un- limited— he wants to see everything, hear everything, handle everything. These activities, under wise guid- ance, will give him clear, definite and effective ideas of the world, which all psychologists say can be best done through muscular experience. The knowledge thus ac- quired gives him a good foundation for his language work. It gives and coordinates thought without which there is no logical expression.'' Not only during the early years of the child's life are his physical activities great. *'The demand for motor expression," says Dr. Shields, *4s most urgent during the years of physical development. The strength of heart and brain, of lung and muscle, in the adult depends, in large measure, upon the healthful exercise of these organs in the running games of childhood."
552 The Catholic Educational Review
Psychology is making it clearer every day that lan- guage should not be taught to children as a thing sepa- rate and aloof from the thoughts which the child should express through language. The organization of the thought material should hold a central place in the child's endeavor and in his consciousness, and through the or- ganization of the thought-material the child should learn to organize his language. Now, psychologists tell us that the child's thought is never dissociated from his muscles; that every idea has a motor aspect; that mind in one sense is a middle term between the senses and the mus- cles; that the mind functions for the purpose of govern- ing conduct ; that an idea is not complete until it is real- ized in action. We see these principles embodied in the work done in the Massachusetts School of Technology. According to Sir Joshua Fitch, ^ ' The student is required, as soon as he knows anything, to do something which requires the application of the knowledge," and, speak- ing of the Yorkshire College of Science, he says, * * in one room you may see a group of students, each before his own table, manipulating his apparatus and making his own experiments in the application of different coloring matters to different fabrics. Each student makes a writ- ten statement of the nature of the material on which he works, the chemical composition of his pigments, the time occupied by the process, the phenomena of change ob- servable while it lasted. Then he places his memoranda with a specimen of the colored piece of cloth in a book as a permanent record of the experiment for future ref- erence." What can be more serviceable in teaching lan- guage than these and like exercises? Through them thought is developed, the vocabulary is proportionately enlarged, while the demand for correct and systematic expression stimulates the pupil to use the best and clear- est forms.
Discussion 553
English literature presents many a sad picture of the old-time boarding school where many a small boy's heart ached and his spirit sank while he tried to conjugate the Latin verb. The room cold and bare, the master stern, the boy oft' times hungry and longing for home, while vainly striving to keep his attention fixed on a word that brought no image to his mind unless, perhaps, that of the master's ever-ready rod for those who failed to remember its modes and tenses. Under this treatment a few boys grew up to be great men, but what became of the many who had their minds starved, their emotions repressed, and their muscles stunted? Contrast this picture with that presented by the leading schools of to-day where the needs of the whole child, soul and body, are seriously considered and where the teacher endeavors to meet all the demands of both. Here the child's cognitive, affect- ive, and creative powers receive their fullest development. Here every reasonable means of expression is afforded to the children whose mental assimilation is promoted by the presence of appropriate feeling in consciousness and whose successes are made stepping-stones to new and greater achievements. The static method of teaching lan- guage produced some good writers, or, may it not be more correctly stated that these men, following some happy inspiration, became great in spite of the method ?
Modem psychology is demanding a modification of the old-time method of language work. It is insisting on putting the natural development of the thought materials and association of ideas, together with appropriate af- fective states, in place of much of the former drills in the memorizing of unrelated forms. If the suggestions of psychology should prove operative in our schools, every exercise in every branch taught will, in the near future, become the means of perfecting the language of the pupils.
554 The Catholic Educational Review
action and the teaching of religion
How can the line of thought developed in the chapter, '^Expression Through Action/' in the Psychology of Ed- ucation, he applied to the teaching of religion and of morality in our schools?
One of the grave questions in the field of education to-day is concerned with the preservation of the balance in the spiritual inheritance of the child. This inheritance is generally conceded by educators to be at least five- fold, viz., scientific, institutional, literary, aesthetic and religious. '^A secure development along any one of these lines,'' Dr. Shields tells us, '^demands a proportionate development along the other four. It is therefore appar- ent that, apart altogether from the consideration of the hereafter, no one can be considered an educated man who is ignorant of the nature of religious phenomena and of the role it has played in the history of the race. The early literature of all peoples is inseparably associated with their religion. Ignorance of religion, therefore, is prima facie evidence of incompetence along many other lines."*
To the Christian religion means much more than a de- partment of science or an element of culture. It is asso- ciated with eternity and furnishes the only means through which the end for which man was created may be at- tained. Since, therefore, the matter is of such paramount importance for both time and eternity, it evidently should be taught in the most effective way. Within the past few years great strides have been made in the methods em- ployed in teaching various subjects in the school curricu- lum. But, strange to say, in many of those schools which have been characterized by progressive methods in teach- ing all the secular branches but little progress is notice- able in the teaching of the all-important subject of re-
♦Psychology of Education, p. 120.
Discussion 555
ligion. Teachers cling tenaciously to the old method of question and answer from the primary grade to the high school. There is no sign of development in the thought presented to the children year after year in the self-same formulae. For the little child in the first grade and for the youth in the high school the question and the answer is the same, the only difference being in the greater num- ber of questions that the latter is supposed to have memo- rized. And this in spite of the fact that the results of such teaching are alarming all those who watch the careers of our young people. The tocsin of alarm has often been sounded, but with little apparent effect. The faithful lives of former generations of Catholics are pointed to as proof of the validity of the old method, and it is asked why it should not produce similar results to-day.
It is to be feared that such teachers do not take into consideration the dangers that threaten the children of to-day. They look out upon the world from the pro- tected homes of their own childhood and because they never came in contact with things that threaten the faith and morals of the child of the present they refuse to believe that such things exist. Nevertheless, the children of to-day on the streets and later on in the mill and the factory, or the higher educational institutions, do meet all kinds of people, hear all manner of topics freely dis- cussed without either faith or reverence ; they hear virtue sneered at and behold indulgence in vice held up as lib- erty; they are told that God is a myth, that religion is a fairy tale. Is it any wonder, therefore, that the chil- dren, whose only knowledge of religion consists in the memorized answers to the questions of the catechism, find themselves totally unprepared for their surroundings and fall victims to the prevalent unbelief if not to the preva- lent vices ?
556 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Religion, if taught in the proper manner, would pre- vent many of these deplorable results. It would enter into the heart and the imagination of the child and regu- late his attitude towards God and towards his neighbor instead of lying inactive in his soul to perish there for want of expression. It is as true of religion as of all other subjects that opportunity to express the thoughts acquired is necessary to the child if his work is not to remain barren. When Christ taught the lawyer what should be done, He bid him go and do it. And the reward of the Kingdom was promised to him that doeth. Why refuse to adjust our methods in the teaching of religion to the changed conditions of the child's life? Why make the subject odious to the child by the retention of a meth- od that has long since been discarded in all other branches? Why burden the child's mind with so much matter that he cannot assimilate? Knowledge does not exist for itself but for conduct. And if this be true else- where, it is preeminently true of religious knowledge. Self-expression is necessary to complete and perfect in the child's life the lessons of the Gospel. Put before him the life of Our Lord; let him see how He acted as a child and in His public life; and from this lead him to an understanding of the truths of Christian Doctrine. Imitation will lead to the proper expression and both will make religion fecund in the mind and heart of the child. The lives of the saints furnish splendid material which should be used in the same way.
**The child knows best what he has received through the greatest number of senses and expressed in the great- est number of ways," hence in the lower grades the action-song, the religious-play, the picture and the story, can be used with good effect. Bible stories in which the whole class takes part can be played. Construction work in which the pupils make or draw a miniature of the Tem- ple, of the Cave of Bethlehem, of the stars, the angels, the
Discussion 557
camels, the king, the crosses, Mount Calvary, etc., while the teacher tells the story of God's love for man in a way to inspire the children with a desire to give God a willing service, is a good way to awaken interest in re- ligious truths. Somewhat later on the pupils may be called upon to make maps of Palestine, showing the routes of travel, the towns visited and the lakes and rivers by Our Lord when ''He went about doing good.'' The physical features of the Holy Land, sanctified by the passion and death of Our Lord, should receive special attention, even if there be not sufficient time remaining in which the children may be taught the distance from Timbuktu to Ujiji, the products of Liechtenstein or the latest capital of Abyssinia.
Sympathy for the sufferings of Our Lord may be ex- pressed by devoutly following the Way of the Cross. All the ceremonies of the Church, the reception of the Sacra- ments, the devotions proper for the different seasons, call for activities which, if properly utilized, become conscious modes of expression of the great truths of religion, and they produce, consequently, not only their intrinsic and characteristic effect, but at the same time they help to perfect the child's knowledge of the doctrines entrusted to the Church and of the language in which she expresses them. The Christian's duty of contributing to the finan- cial support of religion and of Christian education may be effectively taught by having the children occasionally give a small share of their own spending money to help pay the Church debt, to furnish flowers for the altar, to purchase small articles needed in the church, etc. A sim- ilar line of action may be followed in teaching the children charity to the poor, the suffering, the orphan, and foreign missions. These modes of expression will clarify the children's minds and enable them to gain a comprehen- sion of the meaning of Christian Doctrine as no amount of verbal memorizing of the catechism could do. In a
558 The Catholic Educational Review
word, the child ^s mind is developed and with its develop- ment proceeds the development of Christian Doctrine until the proper time comes for its correct and explicit formulation. The claim here put forth is that the mere memorizing is not sufficient, that a vitalizing of Christian Doctrine is demanded, and this vitalization can take place only through objective methods and appropriate modes of expression.
Sister M. Generose, 0. M. C. Delaware, Ohio.
CURRENT EVENTS
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OP AMERICA
The registration for the University Summer School for teaching sisters and women teachers has reached a gratifying figure, and the success of the school in point of numbers seems assured. So far the students come from more than twenty States and represent over fifty teaching communities. The Dean of the school is the Rev. Thomas E. Shields, Ph. D.; the Vice-Dean, Very Rev. Edward A. Pace, Ph. D., and the Secre tary, Rev. Patrick J. McOormick, Ph. D., all three professors of the University. Many of the Sisters will find living accom- modations in the vacant colleges that are to be conducted as convents; others will reside in the various convents of the city. The school will be open from July 1st to August 7th, and will have a teaching staff of twenty-two.
The Engineering Building, that accommodates also the new Heating, Light and Power Plant of the University, is now in full operation. The professors and students have taken pos- session of their commodious and elegant quarters, equipped with all the latest devices for the teaching of these sciences. The classrooms, drawing rooms, library, and professors' offices are excellent in every respect. The new building is an artistic edifice, and with its 125-foot chimney is a striking landmark. It is also the first University building to be erected on the new Boulevard Avenue that separates the University grounds from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad.
The Trustees of the University met in Divinity Hall on Wed- nesday, April 26. Archbishop Farley was elected Vice-Presi- dent of the Board in succession to the late Archbishop Ryan. The plans of the new Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall were approved, and the immediate erection of one wing and the basement of the tower was authorized. The new Departments of Ascetic and Pastoral Theology and of Drawing, the latter to include all the drawing common to the various classes of the School of Sciences, were created.
560 The Catholic Educational Eeview
The teaching staff of the University now numbers fifty. Of these 19 are full professors, 5 associate professors, 20 instruc- tors, and 6 assistants. They are distributed as follows: 10 in the School of Sacred Sciences, 3 in the School of Law, 11 in the School of Philosophy, 10 in the School of Letters, and 16 in the School of Science.
The Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall has been begun, and one wing of it will be ready for the opening of the University in October. This wing, 105 by 40 feet, will be three stories in height, and will be fireproof throughout. It will contain rooms for sixty students, and will have in the basement a large and well-lighted recreation room. The basement of the tower will also be built, and will give room for a commodious tem- porary chapel for the lay students of Gibbons and Albert Halls. The material used is Port Deposit granite, and the trimmings are Bedford limestone.
On Wednesday morning, June 7, the Annual Conferring of Degrees and Commencement Exercises of the University took place in McMahon Hall, in the presence of His Excellency, the Most Rev. Diomede Falconio, Apostolic Delegate. The Rt. Rev. Thomas J. Shahan, Rector of the University, delivered the principal address, and the Delegate closed the exercises with benediction.
The Deans of the several schools of the University presented the following students for degrees:
In the School of Sacred Sciences, for the degree of Bachelor of Sacred Theology (S. T. B.) : Rev. Dominic Joseph Cannon, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross; Rev. Wendell Phillips Corcoran, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross ; Rev. Patrick Francis Crawley, of Scranton, Pa.; Rev. Edward Patrick Dalton, of Albany, N. Y.; Rev. Aloysius Charles Dineen, of New York, N. Y.; Rev. Sigourney Webster Fay, of Baltimore, Md. ; Rev. John Joseph Finn, of Albany, N. Y. ; Rev. Michael Ambrose Gilloegly, of Scranton, Pa.; Rev. William Anthony Hemmick, of Baltimore, Md. ; Rev. Francis Henry Kehlenbrink, of St. Louis, Mo. ; Rev. William Peter McNally, of Philadelphia, Pa. ; Rev. Joseph Aloysius Nelson, of New York, N. Y. ; Brother James O'Keefe, of the Order of St. Benedict; Rev. James
CuREENT Events 561
Francis Palmowski, of the Marist Congregation; Rev. Joseph Michael Sullivan, of the Marist Congregation ; Rev. John Paul Ritchie, of St. Louis, Mo. ; Rev. Andrew Aloysius Walls, of the Marist Congregation ; Brother Celestine Smith, of the Order of St. Benedict.
For the degree of Licentiate in Sacred Theology (S. T. L.) :
Rev. Walter Thomas Bazaar, of Albany, N. Y. ; Dissertation : The Power of the Human Reason to Know God ; a Critical De- fense.
Rev. Eugene Paul Burke, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross ; Dissertation : Some Notes on the Christology of St. Paul.
Rev. Robert Emmet B. Gardiner, of Scranton, Pa.; Disser- tation : Pope Leo XIII and Anglican Orders.
Rev. John Francis Georgelin, of the Marist Congregation; Dissertation: The Authority of the Vulgate according to the Council of Trent.
Rev. Michael Joseph Keyes, of the Marist Congregation; Dissertation: The Doctrine of the Church on Frequent Com- munion.
Rev. Francis Michael O'Reilly, of New York, N. Y. ; Disser- tation: The Catholic Doctrine of Atonement: a Reply to A. Sabatier.
Rev. John Michael Ryan, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross ; Dissertation : The Social and Economic Teaching of Clement of Alexandria.
Rev. John Carter Smith, of the Paulist Congregation; Dis- sertation: Substitution, and the Doctrine of Atonement.
For the degree of Bachelor of Canon Law (J. C. B.) :
Rev. John Ignatius Barret, of Baltimore, Md. ; Rev. Walter Thomas Bazaar, of Albany, N. Y. ; Rev. Andrew Joseph Carroll, of San Francisco, Cal.; Rev. Edward Patrick Dalton, of Albany, N. Y. ; Rev. Aloysius Charles Dineen, of New York, N. Y. ; Rev. Thomas Joseph Finnegan, of Sioux City, Iowa; Rev. Michael Galvin, of Los Angeles, Cal. ; Rev. William Hum- phries, of Baltimore, Md. ; Rev. Felix McCarthy, of Omaha, Neb.; Rev. Thomas Ligouri McEntee, of Harrisburg, Pa., Rev. Leo Ligouri McVay, of Providence, R. I. ; Rev. Thomas Aloysius
562 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Needham, of Scranton, Pa.; Rev. Thomas Joseph Toolen, of Baltimore, Md.
In the School of Law, for the degree of Doctor of Law (J. D.) : Joseph Lepaspi Villaflor, of Manila, P. I.; Dis- sertation : The Authority and Sanction of International Law.
In the School of Philosophy, for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Ph. D.) : Rev. Cornelius Joseph Hagerty, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross; Dissertation: The Problem of Evil. ^ ■„, j
Rev. Patrick Joseph McCormick, of Norwich, Conn. ; Disser- tation : The Education of the Laity in the Middle Ages.
Rev. Patrick Joseph Waters, of Boston, Mass. ; Dissertation : Studies in the Principle of Apperception.
Rev. Vigil Daeger, of the College of the Holy Land ; Disser- tation: The Origin, Primitive Meaning and History of the Dagesh Forte.
Rev. Francis Xavier O'Neill, of the Order of St. Dominic; Dissertation : Some Aspects of the Medieval Miracle Play.
For the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy (Ph. B.) :
Louis Joseph Bour, of the Paulist Congregation.
For the degree of Master of Arts (A. M.) :
Rev. Daniel Joseph MacDonald, of Antigonish, Nova Scotia ; Dissertation: Radicalism and Some English Poetry of the Nineteenth Century.
William Augustus Maguire, of South Bethlehem, Pa.; Dis- sertation: On the Fate Passages in the First Three Books of the Aeneid of Virgil.
For the degree of Bachelor of Arts (A. B.) : Timothy Vin- cent O'Donnell, of Albion, N. Y. ; John Joseph Daly, of Phoe- bus, Va.
For the degree of Bachelor of Science (B. S.) : James Joseph Boillin, of Clarksville, Tenn. ; John James Cantwell, of Wash- ington, D. C, in Electrical Engineering; Thomas Hackman Carter, of Washington, D. C. ; Joseph Roland Devries, of Ar- lington, Md. ; Charles Stephen McCarthy, of Brookland, D. C, in Civil Engineering; Peter Leo McGeady, of Wanamie, Pa. Pa.
Current Events 563
THE children's BUREAU.
On May 18, the Senate Committee on Education and Labor, through its chairman. Senator Borah, reported favorably the bill to establish a Children's Bureau in the Department of Commerce and Labor. The Bureau is intended "to investigate and report on all matters pertaining to the welfare of children and child life, and shall especially investigate the questions of infant mortality, the birth rate, orphanage, juvenile courts, desertions, dangerous occupations, accidents and diseases of children, employment, legislation affecting children in the va- rious States and Territories."
While it is said that this legislation is endorsed by several national organizations concerned in the welfare of children, such as the National Child Labor Committee, and the National Federation of Women's Clubs, it is of note that the National Congress of Mothers has taken some exception to the proposed management of the Bureau. One of the resolutions passed at the last meeting of the Congress held in Washington, was: "Whereas, There is a bill. No. 253, presented by Mr. Borah, before the Senate, to establish under the Department of Com- merce and Labor a Bureau to be known as The Children's Bureau' ; Resolved, That we endorse this bill for the establish- ment of a Children's Bureau, with the exception that we should substitute the words, The Interior,' in the bill instead of ^Commerce and Labor,' wherever these words are used, so that it should read, ^A bill to establish in the Department of the Interior a Bureau to be known as the Children's Bureau.' "
PERSONAL LETTER FROM THE HOLY FATHER
Mrs. Ann Elisa McCaddin Walsh, of Brooklyn, N. Y., found- ress of the Henry McCaddin Junior Fund, has lately been honored by receiving a personal letter of commendation from our Holy Father, Pope Pius X. The fund created by Mrs. Walsh in memory of her brother is an endowment, the interest of which is devoted to the education of ecclesiastical students of poor dioceses in this country and other parts of the world. The students are at present located in many American and European seminaries.
564 The Catholic Educational Review
The letter was communicated through Kev. Charles P. Gran- non, D. D., of the Catholic University of America, who is Vice- President and one of the Trustees of the Fund. It is in part as follows:
"To the beloved daughter, Ann Elisa McCaddin Walsh, who has deserved so well for the education of so many young men called to the priesthood. Hoping that the Lord may reward her with His choicest graces especially for this work of charity and religion; in token of gratitude and good will we heartily impart the apostolic benediction."
FAILURES OP FRATERNITY MEN
According to a statement of the President of the Cornell University the fraternity men continue to furnish by far the greater percentage of failures among the students. Of the 3,587 students at the University, 1,048 belong to the fraterni- ties. The number of failures this spring was 88, of which 40 were members of fraternities, or as it was pointed out, the fraternity men who constituted 29 per cent of the total number of male undergraduates furnished 45 per cent of those dropped. Last year the fraternities enrolled 31 per cent of the total number of students and furnished 44 per cent of the failures. The critical period for most of the unsuccessful students was the second or sophomore year.
NEW PRESIDENT OP CATHOLIC COLLEGE.
A few weeks ago the Rev. John H. O'Rourke, S. J., was ap- pointed to the presidency of Brooklyn College, Brooklyn, N. Y., to succeed the first President, Rev. F. X. O'Connor, S. J. Father O'Rourke is widely known as a writer, educator and missionary. For many years he filled the office of Rector and Master of Novices of the Jesuit Novitiate, Frederick, Md., and it was during his administration that the institute was trans- ferred to St. Andrew-on-Hudson, near Poughkeepsie, N. Y. His latest assignments have been to the directorship of the Apostleship of Prayer, and editorial staff of the Messenger of the Sacred Heart.
Current Events 565
NATIONAL CONGRESS OF MOTHERS
Among the most significant of the resolutions passed at the recent meeting of the National Congress of Mothers held in Washington, were those in regard to the National and State Departments of Education. The Congress recommended an enlargement of the scope of the Department of Education, and the appointment therein of Departments on Parenthood and Child Welfare. As it was believed that "no such department can be adequately administered unless mother-thought goes into it," it was further resolved that a woman should be chosen as its head. All matters relating to probation the Congress desired to have removed from the Departments of Charities and Corrections and placed under the Department of Educa- tion. It condemned the arresting and imprisonment of chil- dren, and recommended that places more suitable than the police stations and prisons be established for the care of those who for any reason may be detained, awaiting hearing and trial. The Congress also urged the embodiment of moral training in the school curriculum, the special training of teachers to care for the backward and retarded school children, believing "that at least twelve per cent of the primary pupils in the regular schools are retarded two or more years," and that the establishment of special classes for backward children is a distinct necessity.
CONGRESS OF CATHOLIC WOMEN
On May 1 the Fourth Annual Congress of the National Cath- olic Women's Circle met in Washington. A banquet followed the meeting, the presiding hostess being Mrs. James P. Cooper. The foundress and president of the Circle, Mrs. Margaret Coope, received the guests, Mrs. Thomas H. Carter gave the greetings, and Mrs. Sarah T. Andrew acted as toastmistress. Addresses were made by Rt. Rev. Mgr. Shahan, Rector of the Catholic University, very Rev. A. P. Doyle, Rector of the Apostolic Mission House, Representative William Sulzer, of New York, Rev. J. J. Cooper, of St. Matthew's Church, Wash- ington, and P. J. Haltigan, editor of the National Hibernian.
566 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Members of the Circle spoke on ''The Book of Kells," 'The Rosary," "St. Rose of Lima," "St. Francis of Assisi," and "The Catholic Encyclopedia." Mrs. Coope gave a history of the organization, and in the course of her remarks said: "The spirit of our Circle is social, educational and missionary, and we feel that we in our simple way, have not only driven the entering wedge into that vexed problem — social intercourse among Catholic women of the laity — but have grasped hands and linked minds with what Maurice Francis Egan, our poet with true vision claims is exercising the greatest minds, the most far-seeing brains of the world to-day, namely, a union of faith with practical life."
SAINT-MARY-OF-THE- WOODS
May opened with the Crowning of Our Blessed Lady. The beautiful ceremony was held in the Convent Chapel, the teach- ers, students, and invited guests participating. After an elo- quent sermont on the Blessed Virgin by the Rev. P. H. GriflSn, of St. John's Church, Indianapolis, the Procession moved through the east and south campuses to the academy, where at the shrine of Our Lady of Grace, the coronation took place with prayer and the singing of hymns. At the conclusion, the procession returned to the chapel, and benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament closed the day.
Special studies in the aesthetics of Greek architecture were concluded with the stereopticon lecture, "Athens, the Violet- Crowned." The topics, Egyptian Influence, the Topography of Greece, the Spirit of the People and Their Building, as exemplified in the Acropolis, were presented in a manner at once attractive and impressive.
The rare opportunity of hearing "The Dream of Gerontius," by the Sheffield Choir, under the personal direction of Dr. Elgar, was eagerly embraced by all of the students. A novel ceremony was arranged for the installation in the chemical laboratory of a fine copy of Edelfeldt's Pasteur. It consisted of short biographical sketches, some pieces of historical re- search, and experiments in organic chemistry bearing on the work of the great French chemist.
Current Events 567
The bi-weekly lectures on Liturgy and Church History, given in the school auditorium by the Rev. Dr. Ryan, Chaplain, are attended with keen interest by the entire student body. The course at present includes a series of lectures on St. Francis of Assisi.
TRINITY COLLEGE NOTES
The Literary Society of Trinity College marked the close of a successful year's work by a lecture on "The Mission of Hu- mor," by Miss Agnes Repplier, the recipient of the Laetare Medal for 1911. The large audience filling the O'Connor Audi- torium to overflowing greatl}^ appreciated a discourse that might be called one of Miss Repplier's charming essays in the making. The freshman French classes and the students of music united in a happy presentation of the comic opera, "La Treille du Roi," and piano selections, at the end of May. A most enjoyable hour was that of a piano recital by Miss Veronica Murphy, of Chicago.
Patrick J. McCormick.
REVIEWS AND NOTICES
Reports of the School Board and Superintendent of Parish Schools; Diocese of Pittsburgh : 1909-1910.
No more interesting or welcome document can come to our hands than the annual report of a diocesan school board or of the superintendent of one of the diocesan school systems. As in the present instance, the actual conditions of the schools of a large diocese are vividly depicted, and one is shown such interesting details as the number of teachers and their propor- tion to the enrollment of children, the distribution of children in the grades, the text-books used, selections from the course of study, and even the allotment of time for the various subjects and in the different grades.
There is a very laudable tendency evident in the writings of many of the superintendents to develop in the teachers a full appreciation of their own powers and of the strong features of our educational system. At the present time this would seem to be as necessary as indicating our weaknesses and deficiencies, since the inclination is too often manifested of readily abandoning what we have for something possessed by our neighbors. Father Boyle, in speaking of the religious teachers and their rare advantages, says: "It is doubtful if we realize to the full the asset we possess in the religious character of the men and women who labor day by day to serve Almighty God in the education of our children. Their enthusiasm draws on an inexhaustible fountain, their expe- rience and knowledge ripen as the years of their teaching increase, their efficiency is constantly growing, and they leave a lasting impress on their pupils. . . . The very founda- tion of their worth to the Catholic school system is the spiritual quality of their lives. For that, if it were destroyed or dimin- ished, nothing could compensate. But the supreme importance of this spiritual quality does not make the need of mere human knowledge, nor the knowledge of the best methods of imparting it, any the less imperative. Our teachers have not been slow to see that an increase in their efficiency in the school is
Eeviews and Notices 569
entirely consistent with spiritual growth, indeed, that it is, with those whose work calls them there, not the least of the factors that contribute to spiritual perfection. In practically all of our religious houses, normal schools are conducted, and every facility, consistent with the discipline and order of the house and with the rule of its founder, is afforded teachers for perfecting themselves in their work."
He encourages the study of educational science and the adoption of those methods of teaching which "the example of the best schools, the traditions of the best teaching, and the selective process of centuries of school experience have held in good repute at one time or another." Education is, however, a progressive science, and when experience of an intelligent kind has done its best work of testing and examination there "is a residuum — small, perhaps, but very real — that is pure progress." Undoubtedly our teachers need direction in their efforts to keep abreast with every real advance, for many of the current theories and methods which have been hailed as great achievements of modern pedagogy are not reconcilable with the principles of Catholic psychology and ethics. As Father Boyle says: "Some Catholic periodical dealing with them as they are advanced, and doing in addition constructive work on its own account, should be taken by every Catholic concerned in the work of Catholic schools, and indeed, by anyone who is interested in getting the Catholic point of view in educational matters." He also urges the formation of con- vent libraries well supplied with the literature necessary for private and class study.
The diocese of Pittsburgh, with its 143 schools and 824 teachers, now provides educational facilities for 45,617 chil- dren. In the past year the enrollment of children increased 3,046; three new schools were opened, and eight others were in process of construction. With these certain indications of growth and progress the Report gives assurances of a corre- sponding zeal and interest on the part of those in charge.
Patrick J. McCormick.
570 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Laggards in Our Schools; a Study of Retardation and Elimination in City School Systems, by Leonard P. Ayres, A.M., New York, Charities Publication Committee (Russell Sage Foundation), pp. 252. We should welcome every genuine test of efficiency which can be applied to our schools, and particularly in respect to their serving the wants of the majority of the pupils. There are other indications of efficiency in the common schools be- sides the superior quality of instruction or administration, a large enrollment of pupils and good reputation of the gradu- ates. All these indications might be present in a given school, and yet its success would not be assured. An important item might be easily overlooked, as, for example, how well the school is fulfilling its mission to give an elementary edu- cation to all the children it receives. Mr. Ayres has under- taken in his work to test the efficiency of city school systems in this respect, by studying the problems connected with the backward and retarded children, those who are behind their normal grades or classes, and with the eliminated, those who leave school before completing the course. He informs us that the general tendency in American school systems is to keep all of the children for the fifth grade, to drop half by the eighth, and to carry one in ten to the high school. The public schools are supplying an education not to all the children they receive, but to about one-half of them; while all are compelled by law to attend school, and the course prescribed covers a period of eight years, the great majority of pupils attend for five or six years, and do not complete the course. He examines the causes of retardation and elimination, and finds that although the prevalence of these two processes is a great menace to school systems in many parts of the country, their most im- portant causes can be removed when intelligently combatted.
Owing to the unsatisfactory condition of the statistics avail- able for this study many of the calculations are based on hypotheses and supposititious cases, and while some of the computations have been questioned in regard to the extent of retardation and elimination in various cities, the lessons they give are indeed very instructive, and have been productive
Eeviews and Notices 571
of a movement to get at the facts regarding the double ques- tion under consideration.
The leading causes of both evils which are found to be much the same everywhere are worthy of study by all engaged in school work, and although the present investigation has been made in reference to public schools, it can be recommended as most enlightening for the interpretation of facts in regard to our Catholic institutions. The money cost of the repeater is estimated by Mr. Ayres for fifty-five cities at the "astounding sum of thirteen and a half million dollars. If the school sys- tems of these cities are fairly representative of American city school systems, then we are spending each year about twenty- seven millions of dollars in the wasteful process of repetition in our cities alone." We have to wrestle with many of these same problems in our schools, as, for instance, that of promo- tions, and of over-age children, which are factors working towards retardation and elimination. Their treatment here in a scientific and readable manner, enhanced by remedies sug- gested to overcome the evils, will aid considerably in deter- mining methods for increasing the etficiency of our elementary schools.
Patrick J. McCormick.
Seventh Annual Report of the Superintendents of Catholic Schools in the Archdiocese of New York, Year of 1910.
The Reverend Superintendents of Schools in the Archdiocese of New York published in April their report covering the cal- endar year of 1910. Their supervision extends over the schools in the boroughs of Manhattan, Bronx, and Richmond in the City of New York, over those in the City of Yonkers, and indirectly over the, remaining schools of the Archdiocese which are inspected by the members of the School Board. They report a constant growth of schools and expansion of the diocesan system. Going back a few years to the installation of the present head of the Archdiocese, Most Rev. John M. Farley, D. D., it is shown that the number of schools has almost doubled — in eight years they have increased from 59 to 105, a gain of 46 schools. There are now 156 schools in the Archdiocese, representing a property valuation of |13,186,000, whose cost of maintenance in 1910 was estimated at |891,705.
572 The Catholic Educational Review
The pupils number 77,363, the teachers, 1,723, of whom 1,069 are religious, 476 lay, and 178 are classified as special. The report offers in general a most optimistic and gratifying ac- count of the present condition of this great educational system.
A considerable portion of the report is devoted to the recom- mendations of the superintendents. We note that New York needs a Central Catholic High School. The present number of high schools is inadequate for the demands of secondary education. Of the 1,878 graduates in 1910, 54 entered Catholic and 508 public high schools, and one of the Catholic institu- tions was obliged to receive pupils from 39 different parishes. It is to be hoped that this very important plea of the super- intendents for a necessary addition to their school system will soon be productive of the desired results.
The question of the Regents' Examinations is a very perti- nent one with the New York schools. Over six thousand chil- dren underwent these tests last year. The direction of the Superintendents on this point appeals to us as most prudent and timely. After discussing the character of the preparation advisable for the examinations, they say: "While deeply sen- sitive of the standardizing effect of the Regents' Examina- tions, we are opposed to making them or any other test the absolute requisite for our pupils' graduation. We have a strong, concordant, perfectly organized school system, and we have, or should have, our own criteria for graduation." There is here a consciousness of the danger of accepting from with- out the standards for our schools, and permitting them to lose their characteristics as Catholic and separate institutions. On the questions of promotions, retardation and elimination of pupils, the teaching of religion and other topics, their counsel is admirable and ought to produce fine results in the system under their care.
Patrick J. McCormick.
The Chief Ideas of the Baltimore Catechism, by Rev. John E. Mullett. New York, Benziger Bros., 1911, pp. 96. Pastors and catechists will welcome the appearance of this new work, which combines all the essential elements of the Baltimore Catechism, with some timely additions, put in the form of simple questions and answers. This catechism has all
Reviews and Notices 573
the advantages of the older ones hitherto in use, and possesses in addition a simplicity and directness of presentation which greatly facilitates the labor of the teacher by enabling the child-mind easily to grasp and retain the matter proposed. The success of the method of catechetical instruction intro- duced by Father John Furniss, C. S. S. R., has long been recognized and appreciated; and it has been the aim of the author of the present new catechism to arrange his work along the same lines. This little book, therefore, is highly worthy of recommendation.
Chas. J. Callan.
The Story of the Mountain; begun by Mary M. -Maline and continued by Rev. Edw. F. X. McSweeny, S. T. D.; Vol. I, Emmitsburg, Md. The Weekly Chronicle, 1911 ; pp. XV, 555. As Cardinal Gibbons says in the introduction, "the History of Mt. St. Mary's College and Seminary should be welcomed with pleasure by all who are interested in the educational in- stitutions of the United States. It will make a special appeal to the clergy, since, for upwards of a hundred years, this ven- erable seat of piety and learning has been at once the nursery and sanctuary in which many priestly vocations were care- fully fostered, and even more carefully developed. Indeed, she has sent out so many and so distinguished priests and pre- lates that she is proudly called the Mother of Bishops."
The publication of this work is a fitting sequel to the Cen- tenary of Mt. St. Mary's which was observed in 1908, and to the dedication of the new church which took place in October, 1910. On both these occasions, the Alumni of the Mountain reviewed its century of achievement, presenting as it were loose pages from its history. It must therefore be the more gratifying to them that a complete and connected account is now available and that it has been prepared by competent hands.
This first volume covers the period from the foundation of the College in 1808 to the semi-centennial in 1858. The chap- ters follow year by year the development of the work through its pioneer stage and through the vicissitudes of trial and success that marked its later growth. The book contains page
574 The Catholic Educational Eeview
after page of incident and reminiscence that give life and color to the whole narrative; but it also abounds in extracts from the College records, from diaries, letters and other documents that make it a source of information regarding many distin- guished graduates. No one can read without interest an account which brings forward the names of Dubois, Brute, Hughes, Purcell, McCloskey, Elder and Corrigan, and tells of their student experience. Nor is it surprising that the College should have come safely through days of storm and stress when one considers the earnest endeavors of its presidents and professors. To the labors of these men not only Mt. St. Mary's and its alumni, but all who have at heart the furthering of Catholic education, are deeply indebted. How well they did their work is evident from the careers of those whom they prepared for service either in the Church or in the various departments of public and professional life. Laymen and ecclesiastics educated side by side at the Mountain have writ- ten out in their lives and achievements the best tribute that could be paid to their Alma Mater; and it is instructive to study in these pages the influences by which they were trained both in the methods of right thinking and in the practice of right doing. Mt. St. Mary's has had its reverses; but it has not wavered in respect of its chief purpose, the making of men.
To the many who read this volume it will be matter for sincere regret that Dr. McSweeny did not live to complete what was evidently a labor of love. In the more recent de- velopment of the College he was an important factor, and it is to be hoped that this History may be brought to comple- tion with the same spirit of loyalty that prompted its under- taking and witii the fullness of knowledge which its execution thus far reveals.
Edward A. Pace.
The Eucharlstic Liturgy in the Roman Rite. Its History and Symbolism adapted from the Italian of Rev. Gio- vanni Semeria, by Rev. E. S. Berry. New York, F. Pustet & Co., 1911, p. 287. The work before us is an adaptation rather than a transla- tion. It departs in many respects from the original, but these
Eeviews and Notices 575
departures add to the value of the work for the English-speak- ing reader of to-day. The clear print and excellent paper add no little to the pleasure which every Catholic will find in the persual of this very meritorious work. There is a widespread and growing desire on the part of Catholics and non-Catholics as well to learn the history of the liturgy of the Catholic Church, and particularly to learn the meaning of the cere- monies of the Mass. Father Berry has earned the lasting gratitude of the English-speaking world by placing in accessi- ble form and in simple, clear language the history and the inward meaning of the Eucharistic liturgy. The author is de- scribing a very general condition when he says: "Ignorance of the historical origin and the literal significance of the various parts of the Mass results in a lack of that devotion and edification which the ceremonies of their very nature ought to produce. This ignorance may even result in a real injury by giving room for a feeling which, perhaps, we would not confess even to ourselves ; a hazy impression that, after all, these ceremonies — the peculiar vestments, the movements of the priest, the prayers now chanted, now murmured — make up but a beautiful extravaganza. But let us grant that we do not experience this rather irreverent feeling, because, being profoundly Catholic, we regard with reverence whatever the Church does, even though we do not understand it all. Yet, if a non-Catholic were to question us concerning the Mass and its ceremonies, would we be able to answer him? Would we be able to explain to him the origin and meaning of what he saw ? Both propriety and Christian duty require that we give a rea- son for what we do and what we think as Christians." The need referred to here has long been felt by the Catholic laity who constantly seek for some convenient source of informa- tion on these topics. The Catholic Encyclopedia offered the first available source of information, and if it rendered no other service but this to the cause of Catholicism, it would have justified its existence. Naturally, however, the matter is treated in the Encyclopedia under a multitude of different headings and the busy Catholic desires some more convenient form. The Encyclopedia is still beyond the reach of many, and it is somewhat too cumbersome and elaborate for children. The present volume, moreover, is peculiarly suited to the needs
576 The Catholic Educational Review
of those who are groping their way towards the Catholic Church.
Thomas Edward Shields.
Industrial Studies, United States, Nellie B. Allen, Boston, Ginn & Co., 1910, pp. X-335. This volume gives a very readable account of the industries carried on in this country. The titles of its seventeen chap- ters give a good idea of the practical character of the work: Introduction, Position and Size, Surface and Drainage, Cli- mate and Soil, Waterways and Railroads, Cotton, Sugar, Fruit, Wheat, Corn, Coal, Iron, Gold and Silver, The Cattle and Beef Industry, The Sheep and Wool Industry, Lumbering and Allied Industries, Fisheries. The work has a comprehensive alphabetical index and one hundred and twenty-five excellent illustrations. It cannot fail to render valuable service in the classroom. It will prepare the children for a more extended study of economics as well as for industrial training and it will clothe the study of geography with interest. The language is simple, the style clear, and the facts are presented in a way to hold the attention of the reader..
Thomas Edward Shields.
The Catholic Educational Review
SEPTEMBER, 1911
THE SEMINAEY AND THE EDUCATIONAL PEOBLEM*
At first glance, this title seems to be artificial. It implies, apparently, an attempt to bring into direct rela- tion twovtbings which have little or nothing in common. And it may even suggest that the purpose of this discus- sion is to discover, perhaps to devise the function which the seminary does or should perform in the general work of education.
Such, however, is not the scope of this paper ; and, if I may speak in advance for those who will present different aspects of the subject, they have no such undertaking in hand. We are all, I think, agreed that the priest, and therefore his training, and therefore again the institution which gives that training, are very closely related to the whole educational movement. There is hardly a phase, positive or negative, in this movement that does not in some way affect religion and consequently demand the attention of those with whom the cause of religion is the supreme consideration. Nor can we, on the other hand, point to any institution which in the nature of things and their normal course, has richer opportunities for influencing education than the seminary has. Passing over the various details of its work, let this essential fea- ture be emphasized : the seminary realizes on the highest plane that Christian ideal according to which the whole
♦Read in the Seminary Department of the Catholic Educational Asso- ciation, Chicago, June 27, 1911.
578 The Catholic Educational Review
man is educated. Its one purpose is to fit men for right thinking and righteous action in order that they in turn may impart the truth of salvation to others and walk be- fore them in the way of life. In a word the seminary is engaged in the training of teachers and for this very rea- son it can neither of its own accord hold aloof from educa- tion in general nor be legitimately excluded from its due share in giving to education its direction and character.
It is true that the function of the seminary is a special one; it admits but one class of students and that by no means the largest ; it offers a course of study that includes a well-defined series of subjects ; and it is in no hurry to modify its curriculum or to depart from its traditional methods. Add to these conservative elements the neces- sity of a discipline which withdraws the student in large measure from every-day contact with the world, and it will be readily seen why the seminary is often thought of as an out-of-the-way place in which young men, by some archaic mysterious process, are gradually transformed into preachers and priests. But it is no less intelligible that the secular educator should regard the seminary, if he give it any thought at all, as a negligible quantity in his reckoning. He is so accustomed to dealing with fac- tors that are flexible, his idea of progress is so fully bound up with the idea of perpetual motion, and his concept of life lays such emphasis on change in adaptation to change, that with his rather vague notion of the seminary, he is apt to pass it over as an institution which neither cares to advance in its own line nor takes much concern of the forward movement in any other line.
This misunderstanding arises from the application of a right principle to a wrong statement of fact as alleged. We all admit that the chief symptom of vitality is adjust- ment and that any institution that aims either at service or at influence must possess and manifest the power of adjustment. Now, it would be strange indeed if the semi-
The Seminary and Educational Problem 579
nary, with its intensely practical purposes, were lacking in this vital power of shaping its work with a view to actual conditions. That in point of fact it does possess this power, I now take for granted. And I further insist that the seminary has in itself the capacity not only to meet the demands that may reasonably be made upon it, but also to affect in a helpful way the movement by which those demands are created. In my view, then, our ques- tion reduces to this: How shall the seminary use its abilities and its opportunities to the best advantage? Or again, and more directly, how shall it contribute its share to the solution of the general educational problem?
Here again, we encounter the difficulty of vagueness, but this time it looms up from the opposite quarter. For when we call on the general problem to come forward, we find ourselves confronted by a multitude of problems each of which has its claims and more than one advocate to support them. There are questions of finance and administration, of organization and control, of ideals and principles and curricula and methods — to say nothing of theories and experiments. All these clamor for settle- ment and no doubt a good deal of thought will be spent in the settling. But back of them all and giving to each its relative value there is a problem that is more than general ; it is essential ; and that is precisely how to edu- cate. Given an ideal, however exalted, and the question is how to attain it. Given the requisite material means and the best possible organization — ^we have still to ask to what uses they shall be applied. And when any method is proposed which assures speedy or brilliant results, we have to subject it to the one final test — does it really educate ?
Mark well; I do not say that this is the problem of absolutely highest importance, as though the means should rank before the end or the processes count for more than the final outcome. Much less is it my intention
580 The Catholic Educational Eeview
to say that skill in teacliiiig can dispense with a knowl- edge of the things that are to be taught. But when we survey the whole range of actual discussion and single out its really pivotal issues, we find that these all turn upon the central inquiry — how shall we educate 1
If, for a moment, we emphasize the narrower meaning of * ^ education, " it may then appear that the question as here formulated is quite irrelevant to the seminary. If by educating we are to understand the development of intellectual and volitional power or the training of the mind or the imparting and acquiring of culture, we are forthwith reminded that we should turn our attention to the college and preparatory school rather than to the seminary. The student on entering the seminary is sup- posed to be educated. Presumably, he has acquired, along with a certain amount of knowledge, the ability to think, the power to express his thought and at least the essential means, such as the languages, to pursue studies of a higher sort. But in that case, what interest can the seminary have in the educational problem or the educa- tive process?
The answer, of course, is plain, and some of those who are engaged in seminary work may wish perhaps that the interest were always sustained by pleasant or satisfac- tory experience. For it stands to reason that the semi- nary cannot undertake to do over again the work which the college is supposed to have done. Nor does it seem desirable to establish a system of conditions like that which is so largely maintained by the colleges themselves in admitting students to undergraduate courses. This plan might be feasible where college and seminary are under the same roof or are parts of one institution; but even then there are obvious inconveniences — drawbacks for the student himself and unevenness in the arrange- ment of classes. The desirable thing is that the student coming up from college should be really equipped not only
The Seminaey and Educational Peoblem 581
with a liberal education in tlie ordinary sense of the term, but also with that special sort of education which will enable him to get the full profit of semuiary teaching from the first day he enters.
I am not here to present an indictment against the college nor a brief in the seminary *s defence. I merely wish to show that whether the seminary's complaints are well founded or not, it must of necessity concern itself with a very large section of the educational field that lies outside its walls. As a matter of fact, the college with equal right can refer us back to the preparatory school and lay the blame, if any blame there be, at its doors. This may not be the wisest or fairest course to pursue ; but so far as it is a possible course, it only brings out more clearly the dependence of each institution upon the others and the need of more thorough articulation.
But here let me point out the phase of the situation that bears most directly on our question. The moment the seminary enters into consultation with the college and preparatory schools, it comes inevitably upon the prob- lem of education, and it is hard to see how good results can be got from such consultation unless there be an understanding on all sides of the question at issue. The college and the school are constantly engaged in the dis- cussion of those questions which arise in the field of gen- eral education, and in the endeavor to reach their solu- tion. Of necessity our teachers in school and college must take note of the educational movement that is going on around them, of new theories whether well founded or not, of methods that may be useful or worthless, of ideas and even of terms that quickly become current in the educator's thought and language. Now the result of this contact with the general movement affects, in the first instance, our schools and colleges themselves ; but it also helps to shape the education of those who are to enter the seminary ; and it therefore affects, in a very serious way, the work of the seminary also.
582 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Let us look at one or two matters in detail. A question of considerable importance just now is the relative value of the cultural and vocational elements in education. Shall either of these predominate? Or, how shall they be adjusted with a view to their mutual advantage? How soon shall we allow the pupil to take up studies that are intended to fit him for a particular sort of work, or busi- ness, or calling? These assuredly are points of discussion that seem to lie below the horizon of the seminary teacher. And yet we all know that he is deeply concerned both with cultural studies and with vocational studies of a very spe- cial kind. Now suppose that our schools in some consid- erable number and to some appreciable degree should fall in with the tendency that prefers the vocational work to the cultural. May it not happen that some who would otherwise go to the seminary will be drawn away into other callings ? May not the early specialization which is now styled ^'vocational'' interfere with vocation in the stricter ecclesiastical sense? But if we grant that such a result is possible, the significance for the seminary of such problems is at once obvious.
Take a further illustration, from an issue that is by no means out of date, but is simply passing into a new phase. Whatever be the merits of the elective system or its shortcomings, it certainly commands the attention of our college faculties and sets before them a question which they are bound to answer one way or another. Assume for our present purpose, that the college, acting in view of the educational situation at large rather than of what the seminary interests may require, should give a wider range to electivism and that the student in conse- quence should elect his courses, as so often happens, in accordance with his present tastes or inclinations and with little thought as to what may best equip him for subsequent work. Has the seminary any concern in this selection; and if so, can it waive aside as of little or no
The Seminaby and Educational Problem 583
importance the practice of electi^dsm and the principles on which it is based?
Even where some value is attached to cultural studies and where electivism is kept within reasonable bounds, one frequently encounters the tendency to omit one or both of the classic languages from the list of prescribed subjects and to replace them with one or several of the modem languages. By this arrangement, a larger place in the curriculum is secured for the natural sciences and the length of the undergraduate course is reduced to a minimum or at least to the limits that professional studies demand. It would be superfluous, of course, to insist that the candidate for the seminary must have both Latin and Greek. But may it not be profitable to consider the advisa- bility of allowing more time for French and German and of providing more thorough instruction, say in physics, chemistry and biology? Is there not some economy of time or condensation of class-work in the college, or perhaps some reapportioning of courses as between col- lege and seminary, that will provide a better preparation for philosophy and theology? The question occurs here, not to be discussed on its own merits, but merely to furnish one more illustration of the bearing that educa- tion in general has and must have on things that are essential to the seminary. And these several illustrations may suffice to bring out the meaning of the statement with which I would answer the first part of our question ; the seminary naturally and inevitably is concerned with general educational problems because the solution of these, by school and college, determines, in a very signifi- cant way, the fitness of the student to undertake the work of the seminary and to accomplish that work in a man- ner that will do justice to the seminary as well as to his own high vocation. In other words, the seminary cannot shirk the general problems of education without hamper- ing or even impairing its own efficiency, either by allow-
584 The Catholic Educational Eeview
ing students who are not properly qualified to follow its courses, or by modifying its standards and methods to meet the needs of such students. Whichever alternative it may choose, it runs the risk of sending out men whose education has not fitted them on the intellectual side for their priestly functions.
n
When we come to consider these functions somewhat more in detail, and try to define the attitude that the semi- nary should take, the general educational problem appears in a new and more searching light. The student, we have said, carries with him into the seminary certain qualifications that are determined by the general educa- tional movement. But now it must further be noted that the priest on leaving the seminary is brought into contact with that movement at various points. So far as he may attempt to escape such contact, he impairs his usefulness to the Church; and so far as he may be expected to do his full duty in this respect as in all others, he should receive in the seminary the necessary preparation. It is, therefore, a matter both of prudence and of justice on the part of the seminary teacher to survey the field which lies ahead of the student and to equip him betimes with the knowledge and skill which he will eventually need.
Among the effects produced by modem education is a certain way of looking at things, perceiving their rela- tions, connecting new ideas with old, stimulating and sustaining interest, translating thought into action and consolidating action into habit. It is, if you please, the particular way of working or functioning which charac- terizes the mind's development and makes other modes of thinking either difficult or impossible. It is not so much a content that has been acquired as a form into which all later acquisition is cast; not primarily a set- tled and definite store of information but rather a power
The Seminary and Educational Problem 585
to grasp and put to use such knowledge as later expe- rience may offer.
This is true of the graduates of non-Catholic schools and colleges ; and I do not undertake to say whether the result is one to be desired or not. It is also true of those who are educated in Catholic institutions ; and it is need- less to ask just here whether the result might or might not be more satisfactory. The essential thing to note is this: the general trend of education determines, in the main, the habitual methods of thought in the average man and woman, that is to say, in the very people to whom the priest brings his ministration. He is called to teach them divine truths, not as these are expounded in manuals of theology, but in forms and terms, in explana- tions and arguments, that are suited to the capacity of his hearers. His aim should not be to make them feel that the truth he imparts is something foreign to their ordi- nary interests, and he surely will not attempt to make them give up their modes of thought in order to follow the course of his thinking. His only hope of success lies in following the example of Christ Himself by adapting his thought and his discourse to the needs of the people. But if they have been trained to one way of thinking and he to another, his task is evidently a hard one. He will not at any rate accomplish the chief purpose of his teaching which should be to make religious thought, the beliefs of our Faith and the divine commands so thoroughly a part of the ordinary thought and volition of his hearers that no contrary motive or persuasion can determine their conduct.
We may, of course, suppose that his earlier training was the same as that of the people whom he has to teach ; and so far as this is the case, he will be fairly equipped to discourse on matters that come within the range of that earlier education. As a matter of fact, it not rarely hap- pens that a priest is more lucid and forceful — ^more
586 The Catholic Educational Review
teacher-like in his treatment of ordinary subjects than in what he says from the pulpit. But this simply goes to show that differences in modes of thinking exist not only between him and his hearers but also in his own mind. He has not acquired the ability to put his theology into those forms of thought and expression which, as we now suppose, were part of his own development and which are the only and the permanent result of the education his people received. That education is, at any period, con- trolled by the general movement which we are consider- ing; and this movement, in turn, cannot fail to interest those whose duty it is to prepare young men for the ministry of the word.
The priest, however, has duties outside the pulpit which bring him into more direct contact with educational work. While he may not be called on to teach in school or col- lege, he is none the less in a position to help the teachers, and it often becomes his duty to help them. As to those who are charged with the office and responsibility of superintendence, a mere reference is sufficient. For it seems plain that what they need is the most thorough training that can be given in all that pertains to educa- tion. Their preparation should be of the strictly technical and professional sort that means a separate course of study with every possible facility. They ought to be spe- cialists in the science and art of education, its literature and the discussions to which it gives rise. And it would probably be overshooting the mark if we should expect them to get this preparation along with the usual pre- scribed studies of the seminary course.
But it is equally clear that the superintendent's task is lightened when his colleagues are able to lend him their support and to co-operate intelligently with him in set- tling the various and complex problems which the school presents. On the other hand, nothing contributes more to the efficiency of the school than the confidence which the
The Seminaky and Educational Problem 587
teacher feels in a priest whose knowledge of educational matters enables him to realize the difficulties of the situa- tion, to give wholesome and practical advice, to take the initiative in correcting or improving the methods of work, and, above all, in securing competent teachers. It is surely better to bring about and maintain this mutual understanding and co-operation than to have our Catholic teachers dependent on institutions and advisors whose principles are opposed to the very things for which our schools exist. And it is certainly a curious situation that confronts us when the priest from the pulpit inveighs against a philosophy or theory because he knows it to be false, while in the adjoining parochial school the same theory in its practical consequences is daily applied because the teachers are not aware of its influence or even perhaps of its existence in the philosophical form which the preacher condemns. No Catholic teacher would place in the children's hands a book that explicitly taught agnosticism or materialism, that gave a false historical statement regarding the Church or tended in the least to weaken the moral sense. But these errors are often dis- guised ; the principles are kept in the background, and the injurious effect is wrought under the harmless name of method or a scarcely noticeable perversion of fact. So it may come to pass that the school, without knowing it, is undoing implicitly the very work which the seminary endeavors to accomplish in its philosophical and theologi- cal teaching. And where this final result does not actually ensue, it is averted by the accident of a fortunate incon- sistency rather than by a clear perception and a deliberate avoidance of danger. In any case, it seems unnecessary to inquire whether the seminary has anything at stake. The duties of the priest in regard to the Catholic school are so absorbing that it may appear unfair to ask of him any further service in the line of education. And yet there is a wider field open, or at least opening, to his
588 The Catholic Educational Eeview
zeal and ability. It may not offer him tlie encouragement that springs from community of ideals and principles; and frequently enough he thinks of it only as a source of opposition and a possible ground of conflict. Still it is just there — in that larger field of public discussion — that he sometimes finds the best opportunity of using his knowledge in the right cause. To state it at once and plainly: I believe that a great deal can be done by the priest towards giving the people of this country at large a fairer and fuller understanding of Catholic education, of its aims and ideals and characteristic methods. The occasion, I think, is now more frequently offered the priest as the exponent of our principles, to share in the discussion of matters which all acknowledge to be of grave import for the welfare of the nation. On the lecture platform, in gatherings of educators, in the columns of the press or the pages of technical reviews, there is a better opportunity than ever before to present our claim and correct wrong impressions. We have furthermore not only the right but the duty as well to point out the defects from which our public school system suffers, to suggest the remedies and to see that they are applied. Now that these defects are so generally recognized, what we chiefly need is constructive criticism that will save us from adopting the mistaken or even cast-off policy of the public schools, and that may possibly bring those schools somewhat nearer to our own ideals of complete educa- tion.
But no such advantage is to be reaped unless our repre- sentatives are familiar with the problems in debate, and with the proposed solutions. A reiteration of our prin- ciples in general terms will avail but little if they are not brought to bear on the actual situations. And it is the easiest thing in the world to weaken one's own position by showing an imperfect acquaintance with this or that phase of the general movement.
The Seminaby and Educational Problem 589
Briefly, then, the priest, willingly or reluctantly, must take hold of the general educational problem. In the pulpit, in the school-room, in the arena of discussion, it compels his attention. It appeals to him as to one whose mission is that of a teacher. It gives him, both in its difficulties and in its possibilities, the widest possible scope for the employment of the powers which the semi- nary has trained and the application of the knowledge which the seminary has imparted.
Ill
In respect of the educational problem, the seminary looks on one side toward the school and the college, on the other, towards the work of the priest in the ministry. In the former relation much remains to be done by way of adjustment and always with a view to securing unity in the student's career, stricter economy of time and more thorough preparation for seminary studies. Our sub- ject, however, lays the emphasis on the other relation in so far as the seminary is to provide for the future needs of its students. What concrete form shall this pro- vision take, and by what means shall the student be taught how to educate!
In answer, I should like to offer a few suggestions if only to have them considered by the other contributors to this discussion and to elicit the views of this conference.
1. The student, it seems to me, can and should be made to realize that there is such a thing as an educational problem and that it is part of his duty to help in solving it. The seminarian, as we know, tends to lay much stress on some things and less on others : within the range of his personal interests, he establishes a kind of elective system on his own account. Partly from inclination and partly from the estimate he forms of priestly activity, he regards some studies as indispensable because they are required for such functions as preaching and administering the
590 The Catholic Educational Eeview
sacraments; and he is very apt to pass over or around other subjects which promise no such obvious applica- tions. It is, therefore, important to impress upon him the fact that the welfare of religion and his own success are to a great extent dependent on the Catholic school, and that in no small measure the prosperity of the school is determined by the way it meets the educational problem. In particular, he should be warned against the mistake of avoiding the educational field because it abounds in follies and fads. Of these there is surely no lack; but how is he to recognize them and to keep them apart from the elements of real progress if he have no concept of what education is or should be?
2. Besides arousing his interest, the seminary might well point out to the student the educational significance of the subjects included in the usual course. There are innumerable questions in philosophy which have not only a theoretical import, but also a practical meaning, and this meaning is nowhere so practical as in the results for education. Psychology, ethics and the history of philos- ophy offer at nearly every chapter an opportunity to show what the consequences are for life where the conclusions of Catholic philosophy are accepted and what different consequences must follow if other philosophies are allowed to prevail. In fact, an excellent means of giving the student a grasp of principles is to let him see how they are applied in education, and conversely, the best way to appreciate any process or method of education is to trace it back to the philosophic principles on which it is based. The same is true, in due proportion, of other subjects^as for instance of Church history and theology; but it applies in a special way to the study of Scripture, notably of the New Testament where the world ^s greatest Teacher gives us so many examples. It would seem to be quite in keeping with the direct purpose of this study if atten- tion were called to our Lord's method and to the profound
The Seminary and Educational Problem 591
psychological laws which it involves and which, as we are coming to realize, are the basis of all education.
3. These laws the student has occasion to apply when- ever the seminary arranges to have him take part in the work of the Sunday school or to get by any other means some practice in teaching religion. Once he has mas- tered the principles which this teaching implies, and has learned from experience how to work them out in the class-room, he will be in a fair way to understand their application to the ordinary school subjects. This, as you see, takes for granted that the same methods — ^not special devices but essentials of method — must guide all our teaching whether of the so-called secular branches or of Christian doctrine. And in fact I cannot conceive any better answer to one difficulty that is urged against the teaching of religion in the public schools, to-wit: that its method is radically different from that which is applied to other subjects. We obviate the difficulty not by forcing on one subject a method that belongs to another, but by adopting a method that is applicable to all, because all truth, so far as it is learned, must become the possession of one and the same human mind, and must enable that mind to see even in its fragmentary knowledge the reflec- tion of the infinite truth.
4. As a final suggestion, I would add, though with no intention of increasing the seminary's burden — the possi- bility of prescribing a course of reading in the science of education. It should not attempt to cover the whole ground and much less to go into those minute questions which presuppose an acquaintance with the results of technical investigation. It should rather seek to open up the subject in its chief outlines, to exhibit its relations with other departments of knowledge and to show how the growth of these has affected the development of educa- tional theory and practice. For these several purposes, the History of Education is admirably adapted, first
592 The Catholic Educational Eeview
because of its close connection with philosophy and Church history, and then because it serves as a founda- tion for specialized studies which the student may desire to take up after completing the seminary course.
So much at any rate lies well within the scope of the seminary's work as it is now conducted. That work would undergo no sudden or radical change ; but by such slight modifications it would easily and naturally adjust itself to the conditions in the educational field and would event- ually make its influence felt in the solution of the prob- lems which confront all our institutions.
Edwakd a. Pace.
THE SUMMER SCIIOOL
Under a separate heading, the present number of the Review contains a report by the Secretary of the Summer School which was conducted at the University during the month of July. The items of this report deserve careful consideration as exhibiting in detail a new phase of the University ^s efforts in behalf of Catholic education. They show that for the Faculties of Philosophy, Letters and Science, the Summer School was practically a summer term of regular university teaching, and that during this term the entire equipment of libraries and laboratories was brought into requisition. Of the 44 departments at present in operation, 18 contributed to the work, engaging the services of 18 instructors and of 6 lecturers who are not members of the University staff. As most of the instructors gave more than one course, the total number of courses amounted to 36, given in 825 lectures, with labora- tory work in Physics, Chemistry and Biology, 50 hours each.
These figures are the more significant because the School was not open to all classes of students, but only to the teaching Sisterhoods and to other women, not relig- ious, who are teachers in public or private schools. As shown in the report, the enrollment was a representative one both as regards the number of religious communities whose members were in attendance and in respect of the various sections of the United States and Canada from which the students came. With Quebec and San Antonio, Portland, Oregon, and Key West as extreme points, with 31 states of the Union represented, the school took on a national and even an international character. And as the teachers are engaged in parochial schools, academies and
594 The Catholic Educational Eeview
colleges, the Summer School was also representative, in no small degree, of our Catholic educational system.
This statement of fact shows plainly that the Summer School was a move in the right direction and that, within the limits assigned to this first session, it was a success. But while the results as exhibited by the statistics are gratifying, their full significance can be appreciated only in view of certain larger considerations some of which determined the undertaking while others have been sug- gested in the course of its execution.
It has often been said, and with good reason, that the University ought to bring its work within reach of our Catholic people, and that while it must be primarily con- cerned with the students who actually follow its courses, it could and should render service, at least indirectly, to every Catholic educational institution in our land. Such a widening of its sphere, it was pointed out, would involve neither a lowering of its standards nor a hampering of the distinctive university work for which it was established. On the contrary, it is an essential part of that work to deal with educational problems, to establish the principles and to discuss the methods which find their application in the school. Whether we speak of the *^art of education'* or of the *^ science of education, '* the plain fact of the matter is that the training of teachers is one of the most impor- tant functions that any university can perform. It is also the most practical far-reaching benefit that can be con- ferred on the thousands of our people who are anxious to secure for their children the best possible education. ^*Give us good schools" means in reality **give us good teachers, ' ' and if the university cannot undertake to pro- vide elementary instruction, it can and must equip the teacher through whom it will help and influence the child.
It is to the parochial school in the first instance that Catholic parents turn when the time has come to begin the systematic education of their children. This school is
The Summeb School 595
the immediate continuation of the training which is given in the home, and it takes over in a very important sense the responsibilities which primarily rest upon the father and mother. The more zealous the parents are in impart- ing the earliest lessons, the more deeply will they be con- cerned about the formal lessons that follow, and that aim not only at developing the child's intelligence but also at building up its character. Many of our Catholic children indeed have no opportunity of pursuing studies beyond the grades ; the parochial school must give them whatever they are to get in the way of education. Hence the greater need of efficiency on the part of the elementary teacher and the greater importance of the preparation which she receives. While she has a decided advantage so far as religion and morality are concerned, she must be no less thoroughly equipped on the intellectual side, so that the parochial school may be in all respects the best and, more- over, be recognized as such by Catholic parents. Our people, in other words, must feel that in doing their duty by sending their children to the Catholic school they are also securing for them advantages that no other school can offer. And since this confidence depends very largely on knowing that the teachers have had the best training available, it can only be strengthened by the fact that the University is taking a practical interest in the teachers* preparation and giving them such facilities as the Sum- mer School offers. Assistance of this kind is the sincerest recognition of the sacrifices made by our people in sup- port of the Catholic school; it is also one of the most effectual means of proving that the sacrifice is really worth while.
Quite naturally, the success of the parochial school is a matter of deep concern to the diocesan authorities, the superintendent, and especially the pastor. As the organi- zation and maintenance of the school devolves upon them, it is their right as well as their duty to make sure that
596 The Catholic Educational Review
the teachers are efficient. They, too, will be the first to recognize that efficiency is not always the result of natural aptitude but that it presupposes careful preparation. Once this is secured, the various problems connected with school work find a ready solution ; and, furthermore, cer- tain duties which the priest has so deeply at heart, e. g., regarding the preparation of children for the reception of the sacraments and their proper training in the practices of religion — are considerably lightened. Hence, while every priest in the country has a primary interest in the theological and philsophical courses of the University, the work of the Summer School has for our clergy a practical significance as affecting one of the essential functions of parochial ministration. In proportion as this fact is real- ized, it will become more evident that the aim of the Uni- versity is not simply to encourage scholarly research and production but also to co-operate with pastor and people in laying the foundations of a thoroughly Catholic educa- tion.
This indeed is the indispensable means of preparing the pupil for advanced study in college or university. Our higher institutions of learning have often to deplore the fact that candidates for admission are not up to the mark, and that it is only through leniency that they are allowed to enter — usually with a heavy bill of conditions to their account. Then comes a whole series of questions and dis- cussions regarding the adjustment of school and college, the modification of entrance requirements, the balancing of curricula, and so forth. Now it is needless to say that these are problems of vital importance and that they ought to be discussed as fully as possible. But the main thing after all is to have the candidate for college rightly prepared, and this means that we must begin at the begin- ning. Not much is to be gained by insisting that the elementary school must bring its pupils to this level or that, unless the teachers be given an insight into the
The Summer School 597
higher education and a training that will enable them, without pressure or persuasion, to maintain the desired standard. They are certainly anxious to fit their pupils, at least such as may have the opportunity, for taking courses in high school and college, and they will do this preparatory work quite thoroughly once they get, by per- sonal experience, a fair knowledge of the subjects and the methods which those courses include, and still more when they understand the principles which underlie edu- cation as a whole and which should determine the rela- tions between primary, secondary and advanced institu- tions. It may then be said without exaggeration that the work of the Summer School is in a measure helpful to our colleges, and that it contributes somewhat to the solution of a rather difficult problem.
The need of such coordination has been emphasized on many occasions during the past decade, and it almost invariably comes to view at the meetings of the Catholic Educational Association. A careful analysis of the papers read at these gatherings and of the discussions which fol- lowed, shows plainly enough that the central problem is that of training the teacher. Many valuable suggestions on this point are scattered throughout the annual reports of the Association, and they have doubtless proved helpful. At the same time, it seemed clear that their real value could be brought out only by a more complete and sys- tematic treatment and even by a critical appreciation in regular courses of study. The interest which our teaching communities have shown in the crowded program of the Association, justified a more deliberate handling of each subject, and though the Summer School, limited to a few weeks, could not pretend to cover the entire ground of any subject, it accomplished a great deal by opening up a per- spective in which the relations of science to science and of theory to practice were fairly presented. Eventually this survey should be so extended as to include every one of
598 The Catholic Educational Eeview
the problems which confronts the Association; we may then expect at its annual meetings an increasing clearness of statement and a closer concentration upon well defined issues. The articulation of our Catholic school system will require but little in the way of formal agreement once the teachers from various institutions become accustomed to working together with a common purpose and a mutual understanding. From this point of view, it may be said that the Summer School is a concrete instance of coordi- nation so far as regards the institutions that are con- ducted by our Sisterhoods.
By confining the membership of the School to certain classes of teachers, the University was able to give the courses a specialized character. The curriculum was drawn up in such a way as to combine in due proportion the academic and the professional subjects. A very wide range of instruction was thus offered, and in each depart- ment the particular needs of the students were kept stead- ily in view. Six courses of twenty-five lectures each, dealt with the subject of education, its principles, history and general methods, and five shorter courses were devoted to the methods of teaching the more important school sub- jects. These might well be called the fundamental courses since they took up those problems on the solution of which the spirit and character of education depends. It is just here that we come upon the real difference between the Catholic school and other schools ; it is here also that the issue is clearly drawn between the philosophy that recog- nizes neither soul nor God nor future life, and the Chris- tian principle that education must prepare for complete living in accordance with Diviae law and in view of an eternal destiny. When the difference is presented in these terms there can be no doubt as to the duty of the Catholic teacher. But frequently enough it is thought that one may hold to the Christian ideal as the ultimate aim of education and yet adopt for immediate purposes certain
The Summer School 599
theories that emanate from the opposite source; and more frequently still it is supposed that one may safely apply a method without much concern for the theories on which it rests or the principles which it embodies. This mis- taken notion may be traced to two causes : first, the failure to note the connection between philosophical principles that are false and their practical application in a method that seems to be harmless; second, the impression that such a method is based on the findings of exact research, that it is not only scientific but is also the one admissible interpretation of science as related to educational prac- tice.
To expose these fallacies is, in our present circum- stances, to render valuable service to our teachers. But besides this negative procedure, it is needful to bring out the bea.rings of Christian philosophy on the theories and methods of education. A general principle may be accepted and held quite firmly and yet may not point obviously to any special application. A teacher, for instance, may be thoroughly convinced that the soul is a spiritual substance and that the will is free, and neverthe- less fail to see how these truths atfect the methods which she employs. The method again may be philosophically correct and productive of good results; but it cannot be rightly appreciated or used to the best effect unless the principles and their application be understood. And so it may happen that the teacher, with a fund of true prin- ciples in her possession, is not aware of their value or able to profit by their meaning — a mental situation which she certainly would not desire to create in the minds of her pupils.
Parallel, if not identical, is the case with the history of education. From the treatment this subject receives in most of the text-books one would infer, where it is not stated in so many words, that the Church had nothing to do with education except to hinder it or make it a means
600 The Catholic Educational Review
of repression. For many writers, the Middle Ages are still the ^^Dark Ages,'' and if some credit is given to the teaching orders that were founded in the sixteenth cen- tury and afterwards, their ^ ' activity " is explained as evi- dence of political craft and shrewdness, while men of the Rousseau type are applauded as the creators of modern education. Even where there is no perversion of facts, it is easy to minimize here and exaggerate there in such a way that the true proportions disappear and the final result is misrepresentation.
In correcting abuses of this sort, it is by no means necessary to disparage the work that non-Catholics have done, nor is it sufficient merely to recite the narrative of what the Church has accomplished. The student needs rather a training in the principles of historical criticism that will serve as a guide in discerning the true from the false and as a standard in appraising the merits of any system or theory or individual writer. It will also be useful as a test of what are called progressive movements. In education, as in all other spheres of human activity, ^^ progress" is an elastic term. Sometimes it denotes real advance, but again it is equivalent to novelty of any kind and even to schemes that imply retrogression. Every teacher naturally desires improvement in her own work and in that of her school ; but her very eagerness in this respect makes it necessary that she be qualified to recog- nize the difference between methods that really go for- ward and those that under the guise of better things would only result in deterioration.
For these reasons, it was encouraging to note the large proportion of our Summer School students who followed the courses in the professional subjects. Their interest and earnestness showed that they realized the importance of basing their work on thoroughly Catholic principles and of thereby bringing into harmony their religious con- victions and their adoption of methods that are justified
The Summer School 601
by the teachings of sound philosophy and by the verdict of history. They evidently felt that they were consistent in accepting the guidance of instructors who hold the same views of education and strive for the same purpose in furtherance of our Catholic schools. And such consist- ency is wholesome both for the teacher herself and for many others who will be influenced by her example in selecting university or college.
It is not less significant that each of the courses in science, language, history and art was well attended. These are subjects that find a place in the school and col- lege curricula, and that require in the teacher a special training. They furnish the content, as it were, to which principle and general method are applied; and each of them has methods of its own which the teacher, from the elementary school onward, must not only employ but must also adapt to the pupiPs capacity. Beyond the informa- tion that is actually given to her class, the teacher needs a wide margin of knowledge ; and, needless to say, no one is regarded as a teacher who merely keeps her own study a chapter or two in advance of the lesson she assigns. Without the requisite supply of knowledge, the ^'formal steps'' will, to say the least, be faltering, and they may perhaps be steps in the direction of failure. On the other hand, a thorough possession of both content and method secures freedom in handling the subject and leaves scope to the teacher 's initiative.
It has, however, been urged that these subjects, from the religious viewpoint, are indifferent, that there is no specifically Catholic physics or chemistry or mathemat- ics, that Latin and Greek, pagan in origin, need not be studied under Christian masters, and that history, as a record of facts, should be common property, impartially shared by all teachers and all learners.
This view would be more plausible if the teaching of science and literature were a purely impersonal affair,
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and if every statement were as colorless as a simple quad- ratic equation. But such is not the case. Experience shows too plainly that facts, however ^ ^ stubborn, ' ' become very pliable when they are arranged and interpreted. To this sort of manipulation history lends itself easily. The sciences also can be treated in such wise as to make it appear that they have developed in spite of the Church and that they are in perpetual conflict with religion. The most effectual answer to such charges is offered by insti- tutions in which Catholic doctrine is taught side by side with the sciences ; and this indeed is one of the principal purposes for which the University exists. Its students are led to see that they can pursue scientific research in the true sense of the term and at the same time hold firmly to the teachings of their faith. The assurance which is thus given proves a valuable aid to the teacher whose duty it is to direct her pupils in the elementary study of nature. At every step she finds ample opportunity to inculcate, not merely a love of nature and respect for its laws, but, what is still more important, a spirit of reverence and gratitude for Him whose power and wisdom are mani- fested in the ordering of the physical world. To the child who is thus instructed, and later to the student in college or university, science will be, as it really is, a source not of distrust but of greater loyalty to his Catholic belief.
The Summer School, then, embodied in definite shape a vital element of method concerning the way in which religion and the other branches of knowledge should be taught in the grades as well as in the higher classes. It was brought out clearly that religious truth should not be held apart from the general body of knowledge or treated as a mere appendage to the regular course of study. It is possible, and it is necessary, to make religion the cen- tral subject and to make every other subject tributary to it. For each abounds with ideas that can and should help the mind to a better knowledge of God and His attributes.
The Summee School 603
Each is intended to further the mind's development, to influence judgment and action and to build up character on a sound basis of morality. When every item of knowl- edge is vitalized with religious truth imparted by right methods, education will be, in a very true sense, a prepa- ration for life.
In this phase of the Summer School our teachers found much that was helpful and suggestive. They saw that the very problems which are of chief concern to them are receiving careful attention from the University profes- sors, and that the solution is to be found in giving heed to the example of Christ and to the long-tested practice of the Catholic Church. When one considers the very obvious fact that the methods of teaching religion can be studied only under Catholic auspices, and when one further reflects that religious truth must permeate the teaching of everything else, it is not difficult to infer where and from whom our teachers ought to receive guidance and assistance.
While the University welcomed the students of the Summer School for the purpose of instruction, it was felt that the presence of so many whose lives are consecrated to God's service in the field of education, could not but prove beneficial to all concerned m the work. As a matter of fact, if zeal and devotion to study are the essentials of university atmosphere, there is every reason to place this brief session on record as one of the most valuable in our educational history. No stronger incentive for a contin- uation of the work could be supplied than was found in the earnest, appreciative attitude and efforts of those who <5ame from far and near to seek the means of accomplish- ing more fully what they are doing for education and religion.
The students, on their part, gained from their actual contact with the University, a clearer idea of its aims and a fairer understanding of its spirit. They realized that
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amid the variety of special pursuits necessitated by scien- tific study, a common devotion to the cause of Catholic truth unites our instructors, and that when the occasion offers each is ready to take up, after the regular duties of the year, such additional courses as may be found useful to our teachers. It was volunteer work that meant the sacrifice, or at least the postponement, of the usual vaca- tion plans; but it was well worth doing, and it deserved the gratitude which the students unanimously expressed. In a special manner also, grateful recognition is due to His Eminence, the Chancellor of the University, and to His Excellency, the Apostolic Delegate, for the interest they took in the School and its students. Their words of approval were not only a source of encouragement but also a further proof of the importance which the under- taking possesses in the judgment of those whose high offices enable them to discern the most pressing needs of religion. Already indebted to them for inspiration and direction, the University is quickened by their commenda- tion to strive with even greater energy for the attainment of the scope which the Holy See assigned it and which, according as it is realized, must extend to all our people the benefits of Catholic education.
Thomas J. Shahan.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON HIGH SCHOOLS*
At the eighth annual meeting of the Catholic Educa- tional Association the committee previously appointed to prepare a report upon Catholic High Schools for boys submitted the following report :
SCOPE AND METHOD OF INQUIRY
During the fall of 1910 a list of the schools which were to be the object of the committee's investigation was made out. This took much time, as the schools had to be carefully selected. Inasmuch as the primary purpose of the study was to ascertain the strength of the Catholic high school movement, in so far as this was an outgrowth of, or at least connected with, the parish schools, prepara- tory departments of colleges were excluded from the inquiry, as were also academies and schools for girls only. It was felt, moreover, that the subject of our Catholic academies and schools for girls was so large and impor- tant as to demand a special study by a committee specially selected and qualified for the task. The scope of the inquiry included, therefore, only those secondary schools which are for boys only, or which are for boys as well as girls, but it was not intended to include college prepara- tory departments.
A preliminary list of schools was made out by the Sec- retary with the aid of the Catholic Directory so as to include all parish schools which had six teachers or more, as experience had shown that a parish school which was
*Presented at the Chicago meeting of the Catholic Educational Asso- ciation by the Chairman. The committee appointed at the Boston meet- ing of the Association, in 1909, consisted of Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C, Chairman; Rev. Walter Stehle, O. S. B.; Rev. James J. Dean, O. S. A.; Bro. John S. Waldron, S. M., and Rev. Francis W. Howard, Secretary.
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so large as to require six teachers was likely to have more than the eight elementary grades. The list, as made out, included 1,474 schools. To these, about January 1st a letter of inquiry was sent.
THE RESULTS
As was expected, it was found that a very large propor- tion of these parish schools had high-school grades and were doing high-school work, in addition to the work of the eight elementary grades. Of the 1,474 schools to which the letter was sent, 886 responded. Two hundred and ninety-five of these, or 33 per cent, have high-school grades. If this proportion were to hold for the 588 schools that did not reply, the figures would mean that one-third of all our large parish schools have high-school grades. It is certain that a very large number of schools with high-school grades did not reply to the letter of the committee. Thus, in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, the latest report of the Superintendent of Schools shows that 29 of the parish schools have high-school grades, while only 8 of these answered the inquiry. In the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, 7 such schools reported to the committee, but the Superintendent's report shows the existence of 11. It may be said with certainty that there are from 100 to 200 parish schools with high-school grades from which the committee has as yet received no report. The total number of our parish schools that have high-school grades may, therefore, be safely set down as between four and five hundred.
It is evident that we are here face to face with a move- ment of the most prp found significance for the future of Catholic education in the United States. This large num- ber of Catholic parish high schools actually in existence — between four and five hundred, representing every section of the country and almost every diocese, is a spontaneous growth resulting from the silent maturing development of
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools 607
the parish school system. It is not due to personal influence, it has not sprung from local conditions. It is simply the outcome of our general educational attitude. The parish school stands, after a hundred years of effort and sacrifice, as the necessary expression of that attitude with regard to the child. The Catholic college stands as its expression with regard to the young men. The parish high school is rising between the two as its inevitable expres- sion in the case of the boy. It is the creation of the logic of the situation. The sons of the Irish and German immi- grants of a half century ago, no longer dwell, as did their fathers, on the lowest economic levels. They can afford to give to their children at least a middle-class education, and, soundly Catholic as they are, they would prefer to obtain this education under Catholic auspices. It is in answer to this condition and this appeal that parish priests and teaching communities have been seeking to build up, grade by grade, the Catholic local high school, as the crowning and perfection, as well as the necessary complement, of the parish school. The parish priest sees better than any one else that he cannot hold the boys of the coming generation to his parish school, if he permits indiscriminately the boys of the present to get the most important part of their education from non-Catholic hands.
This is the situation, this the condition. It is surely a matter of vital concern to this Association to Imow that this condition exists, and to understand thoroughly the efforts which are being put forth by the organized Cath- olic conscience of the community to meet it. The detailed statistics of this report will, the committee feels sure, be of interest to every member of the Association. While commending these to your earnest study, however, it will be useful here to consider certaia phases of this high- school movement that have a special significance, as well as to point out certain problems and difficulties that stand in its way.
608 The Catholic Educational Review
complete and incomplete high schools
The total number of boys and girls doing work above the elementary grades in these 295 high schools, is 14,062. The number of boys is 7,902. One-half of the high schools have four grades. Of the remaining half, 64 have three grades ; 57 have two grades, and 27 have only one grade.
It is plain that our growing system of high schools is passing through a stage of development which is easily discernible in studying the history of the public high schools. Many cities and towns were able at once to start full-fledged four-year public high schools. In many places, however, the public high school came into being only grade by grade. In fact, a condition analagous to that which we are considering exists, even in the public high school system of today. Of the 10,213 public high schools given in the Eeport of the Bureau of Education for the year ending June, 1910, 3,792, or over one-third, had courses of only from one to three years.^ In view of the comparatively recent origin of the Catholic high-school movement, it is, therefore, highly creditable as well as significant that fully one-half of these high schools have at present a full course of four years.
TEACHEBS
Not quite so creditable a showing is made in the matter of teachers. The 148 schools with four grades average a little less than four teachers to the school. But these schools engage 174 teachers for part of the time ; so that if the time given by these latter to high-school work were counted in, there would probably be an average of four teachers to a school. For the 147 schools with less than four grades, having a total of 333 grades, there are only 214 teachers giving their whole time to high school work, which means an average of about two teachers to every three grades. There are also, in these 147 schools, 97
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools 609
teachers who give part of their time to high-school work. Here, then, in the matter of the number of teachers, there is undoubtedly a weak spot. Yet, if comparison be made with the public schools, the weakness may not appear so great, for if the 9,375 public high schools outside the cities of 8,000 population and over are considered, the averages for this large number of schools — constituting, in fact, nine-tenths of all our public high schools — show a little less than three teachers to the school.^
Nearly all the Catholic high schools are conducted by religious. Brothers teach in 68 schools, and Sisters in 220. Without entering into the question as to whether it would not be best to have men rather than women as teachers for boys of high-school age — a question that most Catholic educators would answer in a decided affirmative — it may simply be noted that the leading sisterhoods are exten- sively engaging in the work of the parish high schools. Men teachers may be preferable, but men teachers cannot in most cases be had. The parish priest finds himself con- fronted by a practical dilemma. He cannot get Brothers, and he cannot afford to hire laymen. On the other hand, if his boys go to the public high school, most of their teachers will probably be women.^ No one can blame him for drawing the practical conclusion that, if women are competent to furnish efficient secondary instruction in the public schools, Catholic Sisters are not less competent for this work in the Catholic high schools. The sister- hoods, moreover, with their steady advance in educational efficiency, are undeniably prepared, so far as intellectual equipment is concerned, to take charge of the work of secondary schools.
While all this is true, the fact remains, nevertheless, that men teachers are, by general consent, preferable for boys
^Rep. Commissioner of Ed. for 1910, p. 1131.
'The majority of the teachers in the public high schools today are women. Cf. Rep. Commissioner of Ed., 1910, p. 1131.
610 The Catholic Educational Eeview
of high-school age, and that the only or at least the chief reason why we have not a larger number of Brothers' high schools is that we have not a larger number of teach- ing Brothers. The greatest boon that could come to the Catholic high-school movement at the present time is an increase of vocations to the teaching brotherhoods. There is no one of our half-dozen teaching brotherhoods which does not receive every year urgent calls to open Catholic high schools, and there is no one of them which would not gladly accept these appeals if there were subjects enough for the work. The future must witness a larger growth of vocations to the teaching brotherhoods than there has been in the past, if the interests of Catholic education are not to suffer. The field of secondary education for boys appears to be marked off in the designs of Provi- dence for the teaching Brothers, as that of the parish schools and academies for girls is predestined for the Sisters. Pastors can contribute in no more efficacious way to the promotion of the high- school movement than by fostering vocations to the brotherhoods.
There seems to be no good reason why, in central Cath- olic high schools in the larger cities, several religious communities may not cooperate in the formation of the teaching staff. This is the plan that is contemplated in the case of the Central Girls' Catholic High School that is now rising in Philadelphia. The idea is new, but it is fruitful in suggestion of the good that may be effected by a closer cooperative union of all our educational forces.
connection with paeish schools
If we are to have a system of Catholic high schools, it is supremely important that these schools should fit in with our existing well-established systems of parish schools and colleges, and form a connecting bond between them. The statistics which have been gathered furnish some illuminative information here. Two hundred and
Eepoet of the Committee on High Schools 611
fifty-two of these high schools are directly connected with only a single parish school, while only 15 of them are directly connected with several parish schools. Perhaps no other fact so clearly reveals the inchoate character of this secondary school development. Nearly all these high schools are the offshoots of single parish schools. Even in towns and cities which boast of a number of large and well-equipped parish schools, with thousands of pupils, no attempt is made, as a rule, to build up a central high school with which all the existing parish schools would be made to fit in. What is even more strange is, that where a large-minded and progressive pastor has had the cour- age to take the initiative and build up the high school himself, he has not been able to rely upon his fellow- pastors to send the graduates of their elementary schools up to his high school. On the contrary, such a pastor too often finds that his high school is regarded merely as a parish affair.
At the St. Louis meeting of this Association, several years ago, this phase of the secondary school problem was thoroughly discussed in the Eeport of the Committee on High Schools, and a plan was proposed for the adjust- ment of the relations of the Catholic high school to the parish schools round about it. It may be that the time was not then ripe for the adoption of that plan. It may be that the time is not yet ripe for its general adoption. It is, at any rate, a hopeful sign that it has been successfully carried out in several places. With the perfection of organization that the parish school system has now attained, and with the large number of high schools now existing as well as the steady demand for more, it may reasonably be hoped that this plan or some similar one will be adopted in the cities and larger towns, for the purpose of coordinating the work of the high schools with that of the parish schools. But this can only be accom- plished by the exercise of the strong arm of episcopal
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authority. The Catholic high school, if it is to be a central and common superior school, coordinated with the parish schools surrounding it, must be established by or adopted by the bishop and be directly under diocesan control.
CONNECTION WITH COLLEGES
How far are our Catholic colleges and universities profiting by this new high-school movement? Are the boys who graduate from these four hundred and more Catholic high schools and who go on to college worS, drawn to our higher academic institutions, or do they tend rather towards the non-Catholic colleges and state univer- sities I It would indeed be a sad situation, if this develop- ment of our system of secondary education only resulted in strengthening the already existing drift towards the non-Catholic higher institutions.
The annual reports of the Catholic Superintendent of Schools of the Archdiocese of New York show that the graduates of the Catholic schools there tend to go in about equal numbers to Catholic and to non-Catholic higher institutions. The statistics gathered by the committee do not enable us to ascertain just what proportion of the graduates of our schools in other dioceses go to non- Catholic colleges. But they do show that certain of the non-Catholic institutions are alive to the opportunity offered by the growth of our secondary schools. Thirty- four of these Catholic high schools are affiliated with the University of the State of New York. It is not so much to this that I would direct attention, for it is practically a necessity for every secondary school in the State of New York to be affiliated to the University of the State, under the Board of Regents. The same necessity, however, does not exist in other states. Yet we find that 13 of our high schools in other states are connected with non-Catholic colleges or state universities; 9 are connected with non- Catholic normal schools ; and only 19 have any direct con-
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools 613
nection with. Catholic colleges. Here surely, is a situa- tion that is full of significance. For it means that our secondary schools, which ought to form a natural and easy passage-way from the parish schools to the Catholic colleges, are, in steadily increasing numbers, being drawn into such academic relationship as will make it a most easy if not an inevitable thing for the Catholic boy, on finishing his course in our schools, to pass up into a non- Catholic college.
This tendency is, doubtless, only in its incipiency. I need not point out that it is full of danger for the future of our colleges. And yet, strange to say, it has been indirectly fostered by the attitude of Catholic college men themselves. Their attitude towards this new Cath- olic high school movement has been, to a great extent, one of calm aloofness. Trusting to the sufficiency of their well-developed preparatory departments, they have felt abundantly able to provide for the needs of Catholic boys going on to college in their own institutions. There was even a fear that the establishment of diocesan high schools might diminish the attendance in the preparatory departments. Time has shown, however, that the prepara- tory departments are not sufficient. They cannot be made to cover the territory that has to be covered. Multiply them by ten, and they would still be insufficient in number. The law of distance, as the late President Harper showed, is one of the primal factors in the adjustment of attend- ance at educational institutions, and even religious con- victions must respect this law. A well-known pastor in Michigan was asked by a member of the committee why he went to the trouble and expense of establishing and sup- porting a high school, in addition to his parish school: could he not induce his high school boys to go either as far as Detroit College on the north or as far as Notre Dame on the south ? ^ ' They would not go, ' ' he answered ; ^ ^ they will not ordinarily leave home until they have to; they
614 The Catholic Educational Eeview
do not have to leave here to get a high school training, for there is the public high school, and there is also right at our doors a flourishing non-Catholic college.'* This is the condition confronting the Catholic boy of high-school age in hundreds of places today.
Experience has shown, too, that this new high school movement is not a menace to the attendance in the pre- paratory departments. True, there is a growing feeling among Catholic college men that the collegiate depart- ment would be stronger and more attractive if it stood by itself. I have heard men high in the administrative coun- cils of a number of our leading colleges express the hope that they might soon be able to see the preparatory school separated completely from the college proper, and the latter standing by itself. Holy Cross College, Worcester, enjoys the distinction of being the first of our colleges, after the Catholic University and Trinity College, actu- ally to effect this separation. If such a separation is to come universally, it can only be brought about safely in conjunction with the multiplication of Catholic secondary schools, and it is significant that Holy Cross College has affiliated to itself a number of these new Catholic high schools. It would be beyond the scope of this study to enter into the question of the desirability of this separa- tion, but the experience of our colleges in the matter of preparatory attendance surely warrants the conclusion that the growth of Catholic high schools, so far from di- minishing, tends rather to increase the number of pre- paratory students, if the colleges will have it so.
There are three things that the Catholic college may do at present in order to attract to itself the boys who are going through the Catholic high schools round about it, and to prevent their being drawn to the non-Catholic colleges and universities. They may allow these schools — the stronger ones I mean, to affiliate with them, so that the high-school diploma would admit without examination
Eepokt of the Committee on High Schools 615
to college. The Catholic high schools would welcome this, at least in the case of the stronger colleges. This is pre- cisely what some of the big non-Catholic colleges are doing. Or, the college may attach these Catholic high schools to itself by founding a number of scholarships in each of them. This would be a very effective and fruitful kind of relation- ship. The competition for a single scholarship is sufficient to turn the attention and interest of the entire school per- manently in the direction of the college to which the fortu- nate winner of the prize is to go. Finally, there is the simple, easy and universally applicable means — the most efficient of all, perhaps, for the purpose — of the cultivation of close, friendly, personal relations between the college administration and the high school. It is this that really counts, more than anything else, in the final determina- tion of the choice of a college by the high school student. College men who may be specially interested in this phase of the subject will find it profitable to study the relations of Harvard College to the New England high schools from which it draws the bulk of its student body, as exhib- ited in the annual reports of the president of that institu- tion. Catholic colleges, with some few exceptions, have done little or nothing up. to the present to cultivate this kind of relationship with our parish schools and high schools.
ACADEMIC STANDING
But, it may be asked, are these new high schools compe- tent to do the work of the preparatory departments ! Our colleges have, generally speaking, added to their entrance requirements in recent years, and lengthened out their own preparatory curriculum to four years.
The entrance requirements of our stronger colleges are, I think it may be said, quite as high and rigid as those of the big non-Catholic colleges and state universities. Can our high schools — even the strongest of them — measure up to the standard of such requirements ?
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A ready answer might be offered by pointing to the fact that 34 of these high schools are recognized by the Board of Regents of New York ; 13 are connected with reputable non-Catholic colleges or state universities, 19 with Cath- olic colleges, and 9 with state normal schools. But the Committee, realizing the importance of this question and its special interest to college men, has made a closer study of the matter. It has ascertained just what subjects are taught in each of these 295 high schools, with the number of semesters covered by each subject. The results formed one of the clearest evidences of the strength and perma- nency of this new high school movement, as well as one of the most hopeful signs, in the judgment of the com- mittee, for the future of Catholic higher education.
Of the 295 schools investigated, 209 are found to have courses in Latin. How many of these, now, offer a cur- riculum of studies that is practically equivalent to the preparatory curriculum of our colleges'? Or, in other words, how many of them can prepare boys to enter the freshman year of our colleges? By the term ^^practically equivalent" is meant the offering of such courses as would enable the boy to gain freshman standing, although he might, in some instances, be conditioned for lack of a year's study in some particular branch, such as a science or a modern language, algebra or geometry. Again, it is necessary to distinguish between the colleges. Many of our colleges will not admit without Greek, and, in the case of these, comparatively few of the high schools could offer the equivalent of the preparatory department, for not many of them teach Greek. But some of our stronger colleges do not require Greek, and permit the offering of the modern languages in its place. We will select one of these colleges, therefore, and, as a matter of convenience, it shall be the University of Notre Dame, as I am more familiar with the entrance requirements there, both as to quality and quantity.
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools 617
Taking, then, the Department of Letters and the Depart- ment of History and Economics in Notre Dame Univer- sity, which require, for entrance, four years of Latin, four of English, three of history, three of mathematics, three of modern languages, and two years of science, and bear- ing in mind the quality of the matter required under each of these subjects, I find that 101 of these high schools oifer a curriculum that is practically equivalent to the prepara- tory curriculum or the entrance requirements of Notre Dame University in these two departments. Twenty-eight of these schools, moreover, offer Greek, generally from two to three years. The total number of boys following high school courses in these 101 schools is 3,541. There are, in addition, a considerable number of schools which offer a curriculum that would enable a boy to enter the freshman year in the General Science Course at Notre Dame, for which only two years of Latin are required.
It may be said, then, that fully one-half of our high schools which teach Latin are competent to prepare boys for the freshman year of those of our colleges that do not require Greek for entrance, or for the non-Catholic col- leges generally. It should not be forgotten that many of these schools are of very recent establishment, and that many of the schools that are now able to give only two years to Latin will, undoubtedly, within a few years, be offering a full four-years ' course in Latin and a full high school curriculum of four years. The ideal appears to be everywhere a full four-years' curriculum, and with the pressure from the people from behind, and the demands of the colleges from above, it is certain that Catholic four- year high schools will multiply rapidly during the coming decade.
Nearly all the high schools have, in addition to the regular academic curriculum and paralleling it, a com- mercial course of from two to three years.
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cost op catholic high schools
The question of cost is an all-important one, in consider- ing the future of Catholic secondarj^ education. It may be admitted at once that we could not afford to erect and main- tain a system of popular high schools of our own, if it were to cost as much as in the case of the public schools. I say ^^ popular high schools," and a ^^ system" of such. We have some secondary schools that are fully as costly as the public schools, and to this class belong many of the preparatory departments of the colleges. But it is evi- dent that if we are to have a system of secondary schools paralleling the public high schools and supported by the parishes, instead of being content with a secondary school here and there, wherever, for instance, there is a Catholic college or wherever some generous donation or other specially favorable circumstance appears, then it is indis- pensable that the cost of our high schools be made far below the cost of the public high schools. The ^ 'popu- lar" Catholic high school ought to be a free school. As a matter of fact, many of our secondary schools are at present supported by tuition-fees. Only the more newly established ones are, as a rule, supported directly by the parishes.
It costs, generally speaking, only about one-third as much to maintain a parish school as it does to maintain a public elementary school, even when, as is ordinarily the case, the parish school is just as efficient educationally as the public school. It has thus come about that, owing chiefly to the self-sacrificing devotion of the religious com- munities. Catholics would have little financial advantage to gain by changing to a system of state support for the parish schools, for the money that would be saved to them directly would be demanded of them indirectly by the state in the way of increased taxation. What, now, would be the cost of Catholic high schools, as compared with the
Report of the Committee on High Schools 619
cost of public high schools? We should expect a priori that the same ratio would hold good — that the Catholic high school would cost only about one-third as much as the public high school, for the factors that make for a low- ering of the cost of education in the case of the element- ary parish school are operative also in the case of the Catholic high school. But it will be well to consider the matter somewhat more in the concrete.
We may assume that our typical popular high school, with its four regular grades and its two commercial grades, will require seven teachers. The Boys Catholic Central High School at Grand Rapids, Mich., affords a good example of such a school. It reports seven teachers, an attendance of 158, and besides four years of Latin and three years of Greek it has all the courses that regularly belong to the secondary school, including a commercial course of two years.^
The recently established Central Catholic High School at Fort Wayne is another typical example, although it is content with ^ve teachers, as the two upper grades have not yet been started. Now, if the teachers are Brothers, the salaries, at $400 each, will amount to $2,800 annually. If we allow, for all other expenses, 35 per cent of the sal- ary-total— these expenses are about 45 per cent of the sal- ary-total in the case of the public high schools — ^we have the estimated sum of $980 for all expenses outside of sal- aries. The total estimated expense, therefore, of our typical Catholic high school would be $3,780 annually. Thirty pupils would be about the normal quota to each teacher. With a normal attendance, then, of 210 and a total expense of $3,780, the per capita annual expense would be $18. The per capita annual expense of public high school education throughout the country generally, exclusive of the Southern States, is fully three times as much as this. We can, then, provide a high school educa-
*For a further description of this School, cf. this Review, I, p. 387.
620 The Catholic Educational Eeview
tion as efficient as that given in the public high schools for one-third of the cost.
Were the teachers to be Sisters, with salaries of $300 each, the total cost would be reduced to less than $3,000, and the per capita expense to about $14. We have, indeed, high schools at present which cost even less than $2,000. But this may generally be taken as a sign that the teaching staff is insufficient, or the teachers are over- worked, or the curriculum is weak; and in such cases all three of these conditions are apt to be at hand, each to a greater or lesser degree.
An annual expense of from $3,000 to $4,000 for a Catholic high school is more than any single parish is able to bear. But in a city containing a number of Cath- olic parishes, where all would unite in support of a central high school, the expense devolving upon each parish would be comparatively slight, amounting to only a few hundred dollars a year. This is the plan which has been realized at Grand Eapids, where eleven parishes — four English speaking, three Polish, one German, one Hol- land, one Lithuanian, and one of mixed nationalities, co- operate harmoniously in support of the Catholic high school for boys as well as of that for girls.
CUKRICULUM AND WORK OF THE CATHOLIC HIGH SCHOOL
It may be concluded, then, that it is not only possible but very easy for Catholic parishes, cooperating harmo- niously to this end, to build up strong and thoroughly effi- cient central high schools, which shall supplement the work of the parish schools for the constantly increasing body of Catholics who can afford to give to their children something more than the mere elements of education, and which shall, at the same time, provide a preparatory train- ing for those boys who are destined to go on to college. The parish schools have all but ceased to be a burden — except to the devoted religious communities, and the
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools 621
burden of high school support, if properly distributed, will be but slight and felt very little, if it be felt at all. There is a very acute danger here, however, which it is necessary to point out and carefully consider, if the Ee- port of this Committee is not to fail of its full purpose. The danger is that, in building up our system of Catholic high schools, we should model them upon the present public high schools. We leave out of consideration, of course, all that pertains to religious instruction and the formation of moral character. There is no very pressing danger from this side, although the adoption of certain non-Catholic textbooks and the tendency to affiliate with non-Catholic colleges and universities might well occasion some alarm. The danger to which I refer is in regard to the curriculum of strictly secular subjects.
It ought to be clearly recognized that our high schools cannot be expected to maintain manual training depart- ments. We may have manual training departments in some of our larger and more specially favored schools like the great Catholic high school of Philadelphia. We may have special manual training schools like those of the Christian Brothers. The more of such schools and departments under like conditions we can have, the better. But in the ordinary Catholic high school, manual training departments are practically impossible. The matter of expense alone would forbid them. There is an even more urgent reason than this, however, and that is their un- desirability. It is not only undesirable that our Catholic high schools should take on manual-labor or industrial departments, but it is quite undesirable that they should include in their cirricula a number of other subjects that are now taught in the public high schools. Too many things are being taught today in the public high schools to allow of any one thing being well taught. It is just here, in fact, that our entire public high school system is in imminent danger of academically breaking down.
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The crying need is for simplification of the curriculum and thoroughness in the work.
Not that there may not be need, and urgent need, of indus- trial training through public manual training schools and trade schools. Not that industrial departments or courses may not be advantageous, especially in the case of the larger and stronger high schools in the cities. But, the high school being what it is, a school mainly for the educa- tion of the children of the middle classes, its purpose and function must necessarily exclude industrial training, except in the case of the special boy or in the case of a special purpose in view. We are speakuig now only of the boy. And the same principle forbids the inclusion in the regular high school curriculum of a number of other subjects which now overload and burden it, such as psy- chology, advanced courses in mathematics, advanced courses in the sciences, in history, in English, in art and other things. These subjects belong to the college. There is not time for them in the high school, except by shorten- ing or by superficially hurrying through the essential sub- jects which by themselves fully fill out the four years. The inclusion of such subjects in the high school curricu- lum, with the resultant superficializing of the teaching of the essential subjects, has undermined the academic effi- ciency of our public high schools and is frustrating, to a very serious extent, their every purpose.
It is important to make it clear that criticism such as this does not spring from any attitude of hostility to the public schools. They are our schools as much as they are anybody else's. Our money goes to their upbuilding and support. They are not such as we would have them to be, but many of our children attend them. We retain our full rights and responsibilities as citizens and tax-payers in regard to them. We cannot be divested of these rights and responsibilities — we could not, in fact divest our- selves of them, even if we would — by the fact that we have
Eepoet of the Committee on High Schools 623
chosen to build up and support a system of schools of our own, in addition to what we pay for the public schools. If we cannot make the public schools such as we would wish, we can at least help to prevent their becoming alto- gether such as they ought not to be. This is not only a right, but a duty that we owe both to ourselves and to the common good.
That the public high schools do not prepare thoroughly and efficiently for the work of the college, has long been generally recognized by college men throughout the coun- try. That they do not thoroughly and efficiently prepare even the great bulk of their pupils, who do not go on to college, for the responsibilities of the citizenship that is of right expected of them and for their place and work in life, is a conclusion that is fast fixing itself as a certainty in the minds of most thinking men. Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, President of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, devotes a large share of his latest report to a consideration of the work of the Amer- ican public high school; ^and whatever may be one's opinion of the Carnegie Foundation, there can be little question, I think, of the value of his discussion of the rela- tions of colleges and secondary schools, a discussion that has been characterized by the Educational Review as *^the most comprehensive and sanest statement of the causes that have contributed to bring about the present unsatis- factory conditions that largely prevail. ' '^ In our haste to enrich the curriculum of the secondary school. Dr. Pritch- ett says, '^We have to some extent lost our ideal of what education means. To learn a little about many subjects, to dip superficially into the study of English and Latin and chemistry and psychology and home economics, and a dozen other things, is not education. Only that human being has gained the fundamentals of an education who
*Fifth Ann. Rep. of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. 'April, 1911, p. 422.
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has acquired soundly a few elementary branches of human knowledge, and who, in acquiring these, has so disci- plined his mind that it is an efficient instrument ready to be turned to whatsoever task is set before it. The high school student is led to believe that education is attained by learning a little of each of many things; he gains, therefore, a superficial knowledge of many subjects and learns none with thoroughness. He lacks the hard fibre of intellectual discipline. Such a youth has not been educated. That only is education which sets a boy on the way to use his own mind for his pleasure and his profit ; which enables him to attack a problem, whether it be in school or in business, and to think out the right answer. Education, rightly understood, is a power-producing process ; and the serious indictment against the secondary school system today is that its graduates do not acquire either discipline or power. The real struggle in the Amer- ican high school is between that influence which makes toward thoroughness and that which makes toward super- ficiality; and if the high school is to become the true training place of the people, the ideal of thoroughness must supplant the ideal of superficiality. ' ' Dr. Pritchett concludes that the high school breaks down in both its functions and for the same reasons. ^'The boy who desires to enter college and the boy who desires to enter business alike need to be well grounded in fundamental studies and to gain a real mastery of a few things. It appears equally clear that the educational ideal which makes for a simple and thorough curriculum for the indi- vidual serves equally well the boy who looks toward college and the boy who goes directly from the high school into a vocation. ' '
Here, then, is our opportunity. Here is the work for our rising secondary schools — to do that which the public high schools have been founded to do, and have to such a large extent failed to accomplish. So far from bewail-
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools 625
ing our poverty or our inability to rival the large public high schools, with their extensive and expensive equip- ment and numerous teaching staff, we might not unrea- sonably feel that our poverty is our security. The Cath- olic high school does not need much in the way of material equipment. It does not need a large teaching staff. It demands, first of all and above all else, competent, earnest, and enthusiastic teachers. A staff of from four to seven such teachers is amply sufficient for all but the largest schools. It ought to have a business or commercial course, as well as the academic course. It should aim — to use the words of Dr. Pritchett — at teaching only a few subjects, and at teaching them well. There can be little if any difference of opinion as to what these subjects ought to be, once we are agreed that they are to be few and that they are to be fundamental. Latin, English, history, mathematics, modem languages, elementary science will form a simple but substantial curriculum. The first two will be taught for four years each, the next three for from two to three years each, while from one to two years will be given to the elementary sciences. The Catholic high school should also, wherever possible, embody in the cur- riculum the study of Greek ; and this will be easily possi- ble, m many cases, through the cooperation of the parish clergy. For the boy who is going on to college or to a semiuary, the study of Greek for two or three or even four years is eminently desirable. It will frequently be much easier for the Catholic high school to provide courses in Greek than courses in the modem languages or in science; and, for the boy who is looking forward to a college or seminary course, Greek will be far more profit- able than either modem languages or science.
CONCLUSION
The data that have been gathered by the committee show that the Catholic high school has fairly won for itself a right to be considered as an important factor in
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the general Catholic educational scheme. It has come to stay, springing as it does from the actual necessities of the situation. It will be the part of wisdom so to foster its growth and shape its development that it may fit in with the parish schools on the one side and with the colleges on the other. There is a duty here as well as an opportu- nity for the diocesan authorities and for the heads of our colleges. It will require the exercise of the supreme authority in the diocese to fix the place of the high school in its relations to the parish schools. The sympathy and cooperation of college men are indispensable to bring the high school into harmonious and healthful relations with the college. Firmly established as an organic part of our educational structure, and rightly adjusted to the other parts, the Catholic high school will usher in a new era in the development of Catholic education in the United States. It will keep our children longer at school, and swell the number of those aspiring to a higher education. It will quicken the interest of both pupils and people in the parish schools, by strengthening and consolidating their work. It will foster vocations for both the semina- ries and the religious orders. It will, in a word, complete and round out our whole vast scheme of education, and be the final step towards the full attainment of that ideal which has been cherished from the beginning and which has become part of the heritage of our holy faith itself — the providing of a thorough education for every Catholic child, under Catholic auspices, from the most primary class work up to and through the university.
James A. Burns, C. S. C,
ChairmoM, .
THE SISTERS OF THE HOLY CROSS
As France led Europe in intellectual development dur- ing tlie eighteenth century, so she led the world in the development and perfecting of the apostolic or mission- ary spirit in the nineteenth. And if to her leadership in the first, we ascribe the French Revolution and all that it stands for, to the second is due in large measure the possibility of religious education in our country today. We are so apt to attribute to the French Revolution the disaster and ruin of the Reign of Terror, the violence of the frenzied mob, and other destructive forces that fol- lowed in its wake, that we fail to see the constructive forces and the permanent good which grew out of them. Whether the present republics and constitutional monar- cies of Continental Europe — one of the outgrowths — are an improvement upon the Ancien regime, we leave for historians and writers on economics to decide. But there can be no doubt in the mind of the student of church his- tory that the Kingdom of Christ was extended, its ram- parts strengthened, its standard — the Cross — raised in triumph during this period.
For out of those dark days of French upheaval shines the light of faith in the lives of heroic men and saintly women who felt their country ^s crying need — the educa- tion of ,its youth and its character-formation on true religious principles. Hence the saintly Dujarie, the apos- tolic Morean, the venerated Sophie Barat, the blessed Julie Billiart (to mention only a few) and their spiritual chil- dren— the institutes and congregations of men and women founded in those trying days, and since approved by the Holy See to carry on the work of Christian edu- cation.
To measure their influence upon the religious and men- tal life of our own times and in our own country, we need
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only glance at the pages of the Catholic directory. Therein we shall find an almost unbroken chain of schools running through our great cities and larger towns, through our villages and suburbs, from ocean to ocean, from the lakes to the gulf. These homes of prayer and learning — colleges, academies and primary schools — are the fruitful heritage of those French apostles and founders, bequeathed to us through their followers — the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, the Sisters of Providence, the Sisters of the Holy Cross and scores of others.
Although the Congregation of the Holy Cross is a gen- eration removed from the Revolution, it is closely linked with those days through the Reverend Jacques-Frangois Dujarie, the founder of the Brothers of St. Joseph, a teaching body later incorporated in the Society of Auxil- iary Priests formed by the Very Reverend Basile-Antoine Moreau to preach retreats and missions. Abbe Moreau (born 11 February, 1791; died 20 January, 1873) was Canon of the Cathedral at Le Mans and professor of divinity in the Grand Seminnaire. He was an eloquent speaker and was so successful in giving retreats that his services were in constant demand. With the sanction of his bishop, he banded his fellow-professors together for the same laudable work, and they led a regular commu- nity life for more than a year in the Seminary. The union of these clerics and the Brothers of St. Joseph, approved by Mgr. Bouvier, formed the nucleus of the ^* Association of the Holy Cross'' to which in time the saintly founder added a third branch: the *' Sisters of the Holy Cross,'' to co-operate with other branches in their pious labors, and to labor themselves in a particular manner for the benefit of the youth of their own sex.
Leocadie Gascoin (born 1 March, 1818: died 29 Jan- uary, 1900) shared with the illustrious Moreau the work of founding the Sisterhood. At his hands, September 29,
The Sistees of the Holy Cross 629
1841, she with three companions received the habit of the Congregation of the Seven Dolors (as it was then called) in the Convent of the Good Shepherd which Abbe Moreau had also founded at Le Mans. Here they entered upon the duties of the novitiate as Sister Mary of the Seven Dolors, Sister Mary of the Holy Cross, Sister Mary of the Compassion, and Sister Mary of Calvary — ^names all breathing tender love to the Mother of Sorrows which ever since has been the characteristic devotion of the order. They were formed in the religious life by the saintly superior of the convent. Mother Mary of St. Doro- thea ; and a year later they made their profession as *^ Sis- ters of the Holy Cross'' under the patronage of Our Lady of the Seven Dolors. They took possession of their new convent at Holy Cross where the Fathers had already established a college. Sister Mary of the Seven Dolors (Leocadie Gascoin) became the first superior and opened the novitiate.
Until her death in 1900, she was affectionately spoken of as Mother Seven Dolors even by those who claim St. Mary's, Notre Dame, instead of Le Mans, for their mother house. In 1860, as Mother General, she visited the founda- tions at Notre Dame, Indiana.
Abbe Moreau left nothing undone to perfect his three- fold community which he hoped would be a great power for good in the work of Christian education. His instruc- tions breathe a truly apostolic spirit which he demanded of his teachers — the Sisters as well as the Priests and Brothers. He insisted that the Congregation should be prepared to meet the demands of the times by giving to the people only the best that a well-trained educational body could offer. These lessons soon bore fruit and the apostolic spirit was carried into the wilds of Indiana by Eeverend Edward Sorin, a young priest, who, inspired by Bishop Brute's appeal for missionaries, joined Abbe Moreau 's band of priests. In 1841, he and six brothers
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raised the Holy Cross at Notre Dame — a spot made sacred by the footsteps of the proto-priest, Stephan Badin.
Scarcely a year passed before Father Sorin was urging upon Father Moreau, the Superior General, the necessity of sending Sisters to Indiana to help in the educational work. On June 6, 1843, the first Sisters of the Holy Cross left France for this country. They were Sister Mary of the Sacred Heart, Sister Mary of Calvary, Sister Mary of Bethlehem and Sister Mary of Nazareth. A second story was added to the log chapel at Notre Dame to accommodate the Sisters. In the following November, Sister Mary of Providence arrived, and to these five brave women, whose very names are suggestive of suf- fering and strength, we owe the foundation, if not the upbuilding, of the Sisters of the Holy Cross in America.
This little colony was destined to grow. New subjects presented themselves to join the ranks of Holy Cross, but the mother house and its training school were thou- sands of miles away. Travel was tedious and expensive. Father Sorin, seeing that there could be no lasting founda- tion until there was an American novitiate, consulted the Bishop of Vincennes, Mgr. de La Hailandiere, with the hope of being permitted to open one at Notre Dame. This the Bishop refused, fearing it would conflict with the work already begun in the diocese by the Sisters of Provi- dence who had left France at his invitation and were mak- ing as heroic a struggle at Sainte Marie des Bois as the Sisters of the Holy Cross were at Sainte Marie des Lacs. Even the most sanguine might fail to foresee the phe- nomenal growth of two communities in one diocese — espe- cially when the diocese was an almost trackless wilder- ness. Undaunted by his failure, Father Sorin turned his iattention to Bertrand, Michigan, a mission attended by the Holy Cross priests and under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Detroit. Permission being granted. Sister
The Sisters op the Holy Cross 631
Sacred Heart, with four postulants who had been sent by Father St. Palais from Chicago, opened the first novitiate, July 16, 1844, in a rented house. The Bishop of Vincennes objected to even this expedient and caused Bishop Lefevre to withdraw his permission. By the timely interference of Bishop (afterward Archbishop) Purcell of Cincinnati, who happened to be present dur- ing the second conference between Bishop Lefevre and Father Sorin, the prohibition was removed and the work of the novitiate continued.
On September 8, the first American candidates received the habit from Father Sorin in the village church. These were Sister Nativity, Sister Holy Cross and Sister Mt. Carmel. Shortly after, another band of Sisters arrived from France. On December 8, the habit was again given, and the final vows were made by those who had entered the order in France and finished their probation at Notre Dame. Thus Bertrand became the seat of the Mother House — a rented cottage containing five rooms.
The following year, 1845, a donation of five thousand francs from the Society of the Propagation of the Faith, in addition to a large tract of land (seventy-seven acres) from their neighbors in Bertrand, enabled the Sisters to carry out their original plans of opening a boarding school. A new building, ^ ^ Our Lady of the Seven Dolors, ' ^ was ready for occupancy in 1846. The community chapel was the log church built by Father Badin and sanctified by the Holy Sacrifice which he had offered so often within its humble walls.
This was the formative period in the young commu- nity. Classes were conducted by the priests and profes- sors from Notre Dame College; the more competent among the Sisters were preparing the younger teachers for their life work; the French were mastering the Eng- lish language; the American novices were studying the dialect of the Potto wattomies whom they were determined
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to teach; those showing decided talent for music and painting, perfected themselves in these arts at Loretto Convent, Kentucky; still others, whose aptitude for the work was marked, went to France to study the latest and best methods of instructing deaf mutes. This spirit of study still lives in the community and every year hun- dreds of members from all parts of the United States attend the summer school at St. Mary's.
In 1845, the first Indian school was opened at Pokagon, Michigan. This was followed by foundations at St. John's, Mackinac, Louisville, Lowell, Laporte, Michigan City aT.d Mishawaka. Of these only Laporte and Lowell (Eafeft South Bend) continue to the present day. It was not the want of the bare necessities of life which the Sis- ters often felt that led to the abandoning of these mis- sions, nor even the hostility of the Know Nothing party which prevented pupils from attending the schools in Miskawaka, but the lack of everything spiritual. Owing to the scarcity of priests, the Sisters were deprived of mass and the sacraments for weeks at a time.
In 1847, four sisters from Bertrand with others from Le Mans opened a convent at St. Laurent, Canada. Two years later a foundation was made in New Orleans, and from there in 1854 houses were opened in Chicago and Philadelphia. In the former city they taught the Cathedral School, St. Joseph's German School and the Industrial School. In 1856, at Bishop Neuman's request, they opened an industrial school in Philadelphia and they were soon after given charge of St. Paul's and St. Augustine's schools. A select school for boarders and day scholars in West Philadelphia was the next venture. Just as this material growth was pointing to success, the misunder- standing between the General Chapter at Le Mans and the Provincial Chapter at Notre Dame caused the Sisters to withdraw from these cities in 1862.
The Sisters of the Holy Cross 633
In the meantime the humble beginners at Bertrand had won recognition ; the teachers were gaining a reputation ; the school was overcrowded ; and the legislature of Mich- igan granted its charter in 1851. Two years previous Mother Mary du Sauveur, a woman of rare ability and exceptional education, was brought from St. Laurent, Canada, to assume charge at Bertrand. Her influence was felt at once in the school work. A new building was erected and the name, ^'St. Mary's Academy,'' adopted.
This leads us to the most interesting character in the annals of Holy Cross — Mother Angela — whose person- ality dominated the community for thirty-five years; whose memory is its richest inheritance; whose culture and charm won all who came in contact with her ; whose brilliant mind and literary achievements added lustre to her order; and whose farsightedness and rare discern- ment made possible the great successes of later years.
Eliza Maria Gillespie was -born at ^'Indian Hill," Washington County, Pennsylvania, February 21, 1824. Later the family moved to Lancaster, Ohio, and Eliza's early training was received from the Dominican Sisters at Somerset. She completed her education in the Visita- tion Convent, Georgetown. Her heart ever yearned for the quiet of the cloister, even when she was forced by circumstances and by the social position of her family to take part in the life around her. She was a Dominican Tertiary and lived up to her obligations as such. She was deeply interested in all charitable works; taught poor children; helped every cause with her needle or pen — sewing for the destitute in the city 's institutions, or writ- ing articles for publication and turning over the earnings of her pen to the hungry.
Such was Eliza Gillespie. So it is not to be wondered at that she decided to leave the world and become a Sister of Mercy in Chicago. She left Lancaster with her mother and stopped at Notre Dame to see her brother (Rev. Neal
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Gillespie, C. S. C.) who was preparing to become a priest of the Holy Cross.
Father Sorin was introduced to the relatives of the young seminarian and with his wonderful discernment of souls, he felt that the future of Miss Gillespie was bound up in the struggling community of which he was Superior in America. After a few days spent in retreat at the con- vent in Bertrand, she decided to cast in her lot with the Sisters whose hidden strivings she had seen, whose pov- erty she admired, whose hardships made their daily life truly the ^^Way of the Cross. ^'
On the feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph, 1853, Eliza Gillespie received the habit and immediately after sailed for France accompanied by Sister Emily. Sister Angela, as she was now known, made her novitiate under the per- sonal directions of the founder and Superior General, Father Moreau. This was indeed a privilege and one that has a double significance for the Sisters of the Holy Cross in this country who look upon Mother Angela as their foundress. She made her religious profession at the close of her novitiate and shortly after returned to St. Mary^s, Bertrand, as directress of the academy. From that time until her death in 1887, her name is synonymous with all that is biggest and best in the educational world at large as well as in the intellectual and the religious life of the teachers and pupils entrusted to her care.
Of Mother Angela it may be truly said that she was part of all she had met. She met the highest and absorbed the best. All this she gave out most generously to others. What a delight it was to sit at her feet and learn wisdom ; to get her clear insight into a mystery of faith or a diffi- cult problem in science; to hear her read and explain an obscure passage in French or English ; to seek her advice in dealings with a refractory child. In these and a hun- dred other ways. Mother Angela was all in all to her teach- ers— she was their mother ! Nor did this beautiful spirit
The Sisters of the Holy Cross 635
die with her. It has lived in her successors, particularly in the late Mother Annunciata, who, from her earliest years in religion, endeared herself to all — sisters and pupils — ^by her wonderful gifts of heart and mind.
Through the generosity of Mr. William Phelan, Mother Angela's stepfather, the sisters were enabled in 1855 to take possession of the Rush property on the St. Joseph river — the site of the present Mother House. All opposi- tion to the foundation of a novitiate in Indiana having been removed, it was decided to leave Bertrand and estab- lish ^^St. Mary's of the Immaculate Conception." In August of the same year, twenty-five Sisters moved from the old St. Mary's to the new and there took up the work which obedience assigned in Convent or Academy, in the School of Industrial Arts or the School for Deaf Mutes. Five of the twenty-five are still on active duty there and keep alive the sacred traditions of those early days.
St. Mary's was chartered February 28, 1855, under an act of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana and was empowered *Ho confer such degrees as are used in academies of the highest standing." Having secured recognition for the school in the field of letters and science. Mother Angela turned her attentions to music and art. Mrs. Redman and her daughter. Sister Eliza- beth, members of a family noted in England for their musical ability, had laid the foundation for the present Conservatory of Music by their high grade of work even in Bertrand. For more than forty years Sister Elizabeth continued to direct this department ; her pupils won glory at home and abroad, playing before distinguished audi- ences— even before Franz Liszt !
Eliza Allen Starr trained the novices in art. Later Signor Gregori, a noted painter of Rome, directed their classes. Mother Angela visited the art galleries of Europe and brought back ideas for her own studio. She was a
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member of the Armidel Society of London and thus se- cured, year by year, copies of the world's masterpieces.
All things seemed now to point to the steady growth of the institution and to the quiet that such growth demands. In 1857 the founder visited his religious family in Canada and the United States for the first time, and, in accord- ance with the decision of Rome, he promulgated the decree of separation in temporal affairs between the Sis- ters and the other branches of Holy Cross. Up to this time the property of the whole Congregation was held in common. In 1862 the division was finally made, the Sis- ters taking one-third of the assets and liabilities of the community.
The relations between the Provincial House at Notre Dame and the Mother House at Le Mans became strained, as mentioned above. This was due principally to the point of view taken by the French authorities in matters purely local, viz, the reception and profession of new sub- jects in the American provinces; the appointment of officers, and such problems as could be handled more quickly and with more satisfaction to those immediately concerned by the Superiors at Notre Dame and St. Mary's. The loss of the promising schools in Chicago, Philadelphia and West Philadelphia at this time, made the Bishop of Fort Wayne take measures to prevent a similar one in future. He petitioned Rome in the name of the Sisters to recognize the American community as an independent order. Archbishop Purcell seconded the petition and the proposed new Constitutions were for- warded for approval. In 1869, seven years after, the Sisters of the Holy Cross in the United States became a distinct congregation with the Mother House at St. Mary's. The Sisters were given their choice to affiliate with either branch. The foundations made direct from France (those in Canada, New Orleans and New York)
The Sisters of the Holy Cross 637
naturally remained united to Le Mans. Those founded from St. Mary's were loyal to the new Mother House.
Meanwhile (1866) Abbe Moreau had resigned as Supe- rior General, and Father Sorin, who was elected to suc- ceed him, was named by Eome the ecclesiastical superior of the Sisters, which office he held until the community was placed directly under the Propaganda. The Constitu- tions having been approved he was appointed to rewrite the rules to agree with them. In essentials, these rules are the same as those learned and loved for the quarter of a century previous. They provide for a Superior General who visits all the houses regularly. She, with the mem- bers of the council, decides all important questions, admits subjects to the novitiate and to profession, appoints the local superiors, assigns the Sisters, employ- ments, etc. The community is consecrated to Our Lady of Seven Dolors and ^4ts special end is the Christian education of young girls. '*
The very first rule teaches that ^'the chief aim of the members is to study the glorious standard after which the Congregation is named and to become living copies of the Divine Mother who stood by it at Calvary. ' '
The Sisters are urged to cultivate the virtues of the religious life, especially humility, charity, obedience and devotion to duty. The spiritual helps given for their advancement in perfection are, meditation, mass, exam- ination of conscience twice a day, the visit in common to the Blessed Sacrament, spiritual reading, the rosary, the Chaplet of the Seven Dolors, the Little Office of the Blessed Virgin, a day of retreat every first Sunday, weekly confession and frequent Communion. As becomes followers of the Cross, there is no distinction in dress or condition, in rank or title; all meet on terms of perfect equality.
These Constitutions and rules were approved in 1889 for a period of seven years at the end of which time the
63: The Catholic Educational Eeview
decree of approbation was granted to the Institute, and its Constitutions approved in perpetuum.
The clouds that hung over our country in 1861 caused many parents, especially those in the South, to send their daughters to boarding schools. St. Mary's was soon taxed to its utmost capacity, and in 1862 the first of the present group of buildings was erected. This marks the beginning of the brick and stone age as all previous struc- ture^ were frame. During the next decade or two, follow in rapid succession the music hall, Lourdes hall, kitchen, laundry, dairy, west wing and convent. Later, additions were made to some of these and to the rectory; a new novitiate was planned ; a larger steam house was decided upon. St. Angela's Hall, a well-equipped gymnasium, was the next venture, followed by the Sisters' Infirmary, St. Joseph's hall and Collegiate hall. The gem of the group is the chapel of Our Lady of Loreto, a church in Eomanesque style, of which any city parish might justly be proud.
Besides the material prosperity which the Civil War period brought to the Academy, it furnished an outlet for a new line of activities — the care of the sick — which has been carried down to the present day. In October, 1861, when Governor Morton of Indiana, at the suggestion of General Lew Wallace (a life-long friend of the com- munity) asked for Sisters to go to the front to take care of the sick and wounded soldiers, Mother Angela, with five companions, started at once for Paducah, Kentucky. The next few days saw others hastening south, and before peace was restored to the land eighty Sisters of Holy Cross had exchanged the work of the classroom and cloister for the stirring scenes and grewsome experiences of war-hospitals. Two laid down their lives the first year, martyrs to duty, and the ranks are gradually thinning out until only twelve remain. These have been pensioned by a grateful government and decorated with medals of
The Sisteks of the Holy Cross d39
honor by the Grand Army of the Eepnblic. Archbishop Ireland ,who saw active service as chaplain during the war, and who consequently knows the work done, has said: ^^The soldiers venerated the Sisters, and never since have they ceased repeating their praise. There were other priests and other Sisters in the war; those of the Holy Cross made up the greater part of the roster; none excelled them in daring feats and religious fervor; no other order made for the purpose sacrifices as dii the Holy Cross.''
This story was repeated in the Spanish- Americm . ar, but instead of untrained volunteers, the Sisters who responded to this call were trained nurses and skilled druggists. Before the Civil War the community confined itself to teaching. After the war they continued caring for the sick, built up-to-date hospitals and opened train- ing schools for nurses in connection with these.
The growth along educational lines has been steady and satisfactory. Many openings have had to be refused on account of the scarcity of vocations — ^the cry of all com- munities. There are one thousand Sisters of Holy Cross working in the archdioceses of Baltimore, New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, and in the dioceses of Alton, Belleville, Boise, Columbus, Dallas, Davenport, Fort Wayne, Galveston, Harrisburg, Los Angeles, Peoria, Richmond, Sacramento, and Salt Lake. They conduct over sixty institutions including one college, two normal schoolfe, sixteen boarding schools, forty acadamies and parish schools, seven hospitals and four orphanages.
Since the opening of Collegiate Hall at St. Mary's, in 1904, eighty young women have taken their degrees and the classes show a marked increase in numbers and effi- ciency every year. The academies offer the usual four- year high-school course with the alternative of a two or three year commercial course. Some of the boarding academies carry the pupils two years beyond the high-
640 The Catholic Educational Review
school work. Where the teachers are engaged in parish schools they plan their classes as required by the diocesan school board. In all schools conducted by the Holy Cross Sisters, the first half hour of the day is given to religious instruction by every teacher in her own class. Once a week general instructions in Christian Doctrine are given by a priest.
The Sisters are trained during their novitiate and scholastic for their future work as religious and as teach- ers. The Congregation has drawn up a plan of study based upon the best principles of pedagogy. The Great Teacher is their Model. They are shown His method of imparting knowledge; His use of the story or parable; His object lessons; His nature-studies.
To gain strength for the active life demanded of relig- ious teachers in these days, the Sisters depend upon the Heart of Jesus in the Sacrament of His love. All day long from sunrise to sunset, there are '^Sisters Adorers'* before the Blessed Sacrament. Two and two, they take their places every hour daily before the altar. At St. Mary's, in every house of the Holy Cross — the weekly hour of adoration is made, thus insuring perpetual adora- tion. This custom dates back to 1854 when nocturnal adoration was established. The Sisters in this exercise pray, not for individual needs, but for the community, that through its members and its teachings the Kingdom of God may be spread throughout our beautiful land, and the little ones of Christ suffered to come unto Him through Christian education!
This is perhaps the secret of whatever little success has blessed the work of the Sisters of Holy Cross in the United States during the past seven decades.
S. M. A.
RETARDATION AND ELIMINATION OF PUPILS IN OUR SCHOOLS ^
The zealous worker in the educational field welcomes every genuine test of efficiency which can be applied to our schools and school systems. He knows how inade- quate and unsuitable are some of the standards by which success or failure of the elementary schools is often meas- ured. While in a given case, through deference to estab- lished criteria of judgment, he may refer to such indica- tions of efficiency as excellent equipment, superior quality of instruction, and success of the graduates, he realizes that these points do not give complete assurance of the success of the school. He is inclined to feel that the test implied by their enumeration is more appropriate to a higher and more specialized form of education such as the college or university.
The elementary school with its definite aim to provide instruction in the rudiments of learning should be pri- marily tested, it would seem, as to how well or ill it fulfills its mission to educate the majority of the children it receives. Apart from such important questions as the quality of the instruction given in the school, the character of its administration, and the success of those who have completed the course, this significant item remains to be accounted for, viz. what percentage of the pupils have received the full benefit of the school? Or perhaps the question may be stated more clearly in this way. If all other elements are present in a given school or system such as are implied by superior equipment, administra- tion, and scholarship, and only a small proportion of the pupils receive the full course, while the majority receive
'Paper read at the Eighth Annual Meeting of the CathoUc Educational Association, Chicago, 111., June 26-29, 1911.
642 The Catholic Educational Review
only one-half or two-thirds of it, the school is in that pro- portion failing in its mission to do its full duty to all.
The study of all the processes of retardation and elimi- nation sets about to determine the efficiency of the school in this respect. It purposes to ascertain the number of those whom the elementary school has educated only in part, the reasons why these pupils have failed to enjoy the entire benefits of the course, and to propose means for a more satisfactory fulfilment of the mission of the school — to give an elementary education to all the chil- dren. That interest in the study is widespread, and that the greatest importance is attached to it, is evident from the number of publications and treatises dealing with it, and from the attention commanded by it in the reports of school superintendents and civil authorities throughout this country. In a bibliography courteously supplied by the National Bureau of Education at Washington for the preparation of this paper are found, under the heading of Backward and Retarded Children, references to fifty-two treatises on various phases of the subject, and in another, under Retardation and Elimination, sixty-two treatises, all of which have been written within the last decade, since 1900.
The results of this study have shown that, in this coun- try particularly, the public schools are supplying an edu- cation not to all of the children they receive, but to about one-half of them, that while all are compelled by law to attend school and the course prescribed covers a period of eight years, the great majority of pupils attend for five or six years and do not complete the course. According to one student of the problem, Mr. Leonard P. Ayres, author of ^ ^ Laggards in Our Schools, ' ' ten per cent of the children leave when thirteen years of age, forty per cent when fourteen, fifty per cent of the remainder when fifteen, and fifty per cent of that remainder when sixteen ; or in speak- ing of them by grades, the general tendency in American
Eetaedation and Elimination of Pupils 643
school systems is to keep all of the cMldren for the fifth grade, to drop half by the eighth, and to carry one in ten to the high school. It is found that conditions vary greatly in different parts of the country, and that retarda- tion and elimination are not known in certain localities to the same extent as in others. For instance, in Qnincy, Mass., for every ten beginners in the elementary school eight reached the eighth grade, whereas in Camden, N. J., for every ten beginners only two completed the eighth grade. The various studies, however, have awakened the educational world to the existence of a most serious problem, and have been fruitful in encouraging further efforts looking towards its solution. As there are many important phases of this twofold subject, any of which could profitably occupy our entire time, we shall here try to see, first, the application of the subject to our schools, second, the most potent factors working towards retarda- tion and elimination, and finally, the remedies suggested to overcome them.
Every teacher is familiar with the dull, the backward, the defective, and the retarded children, and anxious for suggestions to ameliorate their condition. So are all teachers, principals and pastors conscious of the great number of the eliminated, those who for one reason or another leave school before reaching the last grade. As one factor affects the other very perceptibly — the retarded being among the most ready to leave school — and as both are an index of the efficiency of our schools in giving an elementary education to our children, the causes producing them, and the conditions aggravating them ought to be our first concern, that knowing them we may intelligently combat and overcome them. For obvious reasons we shall confine our attention to the elementary schools.
The retarded we accept to include all those children who are behind their proper or normal grades. They may
644 The Catholic Educational Eeview
have begun school late, or have failed of promotion; at any rate, they are all over age for their grades, and when they reach the age of fourteen have not completed the entire course. Those who leave before finishing the course are the eliminated, and it would appear from the data we possess for our Catholic school systems that both classes of children are with us to an alarming extent.
The statistics available for the study of this condition in our schools are very meager. Comparatively few of the reports of the diocesan superintendents and school boards are made public, and these few are wanting in the most essential details for the study of this problem. We are not criticizing the reports, for they are excellent in many and most respects, and are of the greatest utility to the dioceses concerned and the Catholic system gener- ally, and we could scarcely expect that they would incor- porate at this early stage in the study of a new problem the details which are deemed necessary. They do, how- ever, throw light on the situation, and although those at hand for the preparation of this paper were representa- tive of the eastern portion of the country, perhaps they can be said to picture the general condition of our schools.
To take one point alone on which some of the diocesan reports offer information, i. e., the distribution of children in the different grades of a diocesan system. We cannot tell from this either the number retarded, or the num- ber eliminated, but we can derive some idea of the preva- lence and extent of the two processes. In one diocese there are over 62,000 children enrolled in the elementary schools; 37,000, or over half of the entire enrollment are contained in the first three grades, and the greatest enroll- ment is in the first grade. The decrease in numbers is very marked from the fourth to the fifth grade, almost a half, and from the sixth to the seventh the falling off in numbers is one-half, as it is also from the seventh to the
Eetardation and Elimination of Pupils 645
eighth grade. At the time these numbers were recorded there were ninety-two per cent more children in the first than in the highest or eighth grade.
In another diocese very similar conditions obtain. Sixty-three per cent of the entire number of children in the schools are in the first three grades, and the largest number for any grade is in the first. Those in the eighth grade are eight per cent of the number in the first grade. The falling off in numbers is most marked from the sixth to the seventh grade, the latter containing less than half as many as the former. The numbers, however, for the seventh and eighth grades are not so variant; there is a decrease, but not nearly as great as between the two pre- vious grades. These statistics have been compared with those of two other dioceses which show practically the same characteristics in the distribution of children by grades.
Of course it is expected that the greatest number of children will be recorded in grade one. That is the general condition in elementary school systems. We do not intend to infer by making these comparisons of figures that since the number of those in the higher grades is so much smaller than those in the lower, retardation or elimination has occurred in inverse proportion, or caused the thinning out. Owing to the increase in population there are more in the first grade now than there were eight years ago when the older children entered, and the ranks of the latter could have been affected by death. And we know also that those in grade one are not all beginners, some have been in the grade previous to the present school year, for it is estimated that in no other grade is there such a large percentage of repeaters.
The figures nevertheless, in addition to other items of information, indicate a condition of vital interest for the process of retardation. The swollen numbers in the pri- mary grades may be partly caused by retardation, but
646 The Catholic Educational Eeview
they certainlj are in turn a means of promoting the evil. Indirectly they mean overcrowding, according to the reports of our superintendents. Were they supplemented with details as to the ages of the pupils in the grades and the number of beginners each year, the calculation of the number of the retarded would not be difficult. The estima- tion of the number eliminated and the determining of their relation to the whole number of pupils, would also be rendered possible. From the present condition of the statistics it does not seem feasible to construct even the supposititious cases such as were used by Mr. Ayres and Dr. Thorndike in making their calculations for public schools. Some comfort may be had in the present unfor- tunate situation, however, and that is that while the supposititious case may be instructive, and may often approach the actual, ^^de facto,'' it shot far of the mark in regard to some city systems of schools.
Mr. Frank P. Bachman, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Cleveland, Ohio, in the Educational Eeview, June, 1910, supplies the facts connected with those two processes for the schools of the city of Cleveland, and compares them with the calculations of Mr. Ayres and Dr. Thorndike for the same city. Mr. Bachman says: '*Both Dr. Thorndike and Mr. Ayres estimate the per cent of retention or of elimination in any given system through using the number of probable beginners as the basis of determining the number that should be in any given grade and through finding what per cent the membership of a given grade is of the number of probable beginners. To find the probable number of beginners in any system. Dr. Thorndike takes the average of the membership of the first three grades. To be sure he assumes to employ an elaborate system of correctives, yet the above is the essence of his method. On the other hand, Mr. Ayres finds the number of probable beginners in a given system by taking the *^ average of the generations of the ages seven to twelve in the school membership of the system. ' '
Eetabdation and Elimination of Pupils 647
'*If determined by Dr. Thorndike's method, the num- ber of beginners in the elementary schools of Cleveland for 1908-09 would be 9,848; and if estimated by Mr. Ayres's method, it would be 6,608; whereas, in fact, the number of beginners was 8,504. In this particular case it appears that Dr. Thorndike's method gives 1,344 or 15.8 per cent too many, while Mr. Ayres's yields 1,896 or 22.3 per cent too few beginners.
^*When the per cent of retention in the eighth grade is determined, in the case of Cleveland for 1908-09 in view of Dr. Thorndike's method, it is 37.6 per cent, while Mr. Ayres's method gives the per cent remaining as 56; whereas taking the actual number of beginners as the basis of determining the degree of retention would indi- cate 5.9 per cent greater holding power than the use of Dr. Thorndike's method, and 12.5 per cent less than Mr. Ayres's method — difference in holding power not insig- nificant in judging of the efficiency of a school system. '^
Mr. Bachman also shows that in regard to the number of retarded there is a great variance between fact and theory, the number of those repeating being 14.5 per cent of total registration as contrasted with 20.2 per cent estimated by Mr. Ayres.
In offering this contrast between fact and theory it may be well to note that had not the theorists furnished us with their calculations the masters of facts might not have been stirred to action. The so-called theorists served a good purpose in opening the new field and commanding study of these problems. Since it is easy to ascertain the exact number of beginners in any system, the num- ber of retarded, and the number of eliminated, we may repeat with the writer quoted above, ^4t ought not to be long before there would be no need of a theoretical method of determination. ' '
The study of this aspect of the problem i. e., the extent of retardation and elimination in our Catholic schools
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should' be one of our earliest and most productive tasks. It would most logically be assigned to the community inspectors and local principals for the schools under their care, and not to the superintendents of great dio- cesan systems, although the direction and encouragement of the latter would be required. Knowledge of the extent in various localities and in the schools of different com- munities would furnish the finest material for the calcula- tions of the superintendent, and from the studies of the latter a basis would be established for calculation on a larger scale. The means would then be at hand for mak- ing a comparative study in Catholic and public school systems. Until such data are supplied for separate and distinct localities nothing more, it appears to uS, can be done than approach the question by means of hypotheses and supposititious cases.
The factors working towards retardation and elimina- tion are, however, very much the same in all our schools, and if the evil consequences are to be averted their causes must be recognized, and, if possible, removed. The respon- sibility entailed rests upon all engaged in school work, upon superintendents, inspectors, principals and teachers. It calls for such efficient school management that shall not lose sight of any child, that shall study and record his progress from the time he enters school until he leaves, for this is a problem with immediate and serious effects both for the child and for the school. For the child retardation often means the beginning of his dislike for school, the decline of interest in his work, the loss of confidence in his mental powers, the preference for other occupations, and the desire to leave; for the school, retardation means the crowded classes, the problem of the repeaters, the thinning of ranks in the higher grades ; and most important of all for the Catholic child and the Cath- olic school, the prevalence of these two processes means that of that Christian training, intellectual, moral and re-
Ketardation and Elimination of Pupils 649
ligious, which in our elementary schools is already reduced to a minimum, only a portion can be imparted. In other words, for us the question of retardation and of elimina- tion has an added significance in affecting the efficiency of the most important auxiliary of the Church in her conquest of souls.
The factors causing retardation and elimination we have said are much the same everywhere, but as all schools and localities have their own peculiar problems so particular circumstances will arise to affect this question which will demand special study and treatment. Our immediate occupation, then, must be to study and investi- gate in the various parts of our country and in the different systems of schools, why children fail, why they are dull, and why they leave school. These facts when obtained will be assuredly of the highest directive value, and may perhaps determine a method of procedure in treating the problem not yet contemplated by its present students.
** When we seek to analyze the causes which are respon- sible for the conditions which have been discussed, ' ' says Mr. Ayres, ^^we find the field a difficult one. There is no one cause for retardation nor can we say that any one cause is preponderant. Late entrance is a potent factor, irregular attendance is another. In both cases time lost through illness plays an important part. Certain physical defects are responsible for a part of the backwardness. On the basis of the investigation conducted in New York we can say that in general children suffering from physi- cal defects which are recorded in that city by the school physicians make nearly nine per cent slower progress than do the children who are found on examination to have no defects, (children having some sort of defects, adenoids, for instance, are retarded still more."
For Catholic schools most of the above can be repeated, excepting perhaps the item of late entrance. We have not
650 The Catholic Educational Eeview
the same difficulty in obtaining children at an early age. In fact very often the age for admission in our schools prevents some who desire to register even earlier. Another factor, which has not been found a potent cause of retardation in some public schools, although alleged as such in others, and in ours, is the number of foreign children. On this point Mr. Ayres informs us as the result of investigation in New York: *^It has been con- clusively shown that ignorance of the English language is a handicap that is quickly and easily overcome, and has little influence on retardation.''
In our enquiries as to the causes of retardation in Catholic schools this was one of the most commonly reported. These children were found hard to grade. Many of them had begun their education En foreign schools and entered ours at the age of ten or twelve. The great error which accounts for the number of retarded in this class, is placing the newcomers in grades lower than those in which they normally belong, merely on account of their ignorance of English. The recommendations and the actual experience of those who have been most suc- cessful with them, direct that they be given the benefit of special instruction in English without neglect of their other studies, and not that they be placed with much younger children in the lower grades, where with the beginnings of the study of English they must repeat the rudiments they had elsewhere learned.
The customary systems of promotion are, furthermore, fruitful sources of retardation and elimination. Failure means repetition, and frequent repetition tends to swell the number of the eliminated. Since we know what is the extent of failure in the public schools — one-sixth of all the children, according to some estimates — and see that in ours in different schools and classes it is as much as one-sixth or one-eighth, and are at a loss to know whether it be caused by an overcrowded curriculum, by lack of
Retardation and Elimination of Pupils 651
attention to the backward, by the method of grading, we ought to be most attentive to the movements in progress for the revision of the courses of study and the system of promotion, so as to adjust the elementary education to the needs of the average and normal child. In the situa- tion at present it is generally admitted that there is too much rigidity, and too strong an effort to make the child suit the system, rather than the system suit the child.
Alarmed at the number of non-promotions in New York City, the Bureau of Municipal Research recently under- took an investigation of the question, and consulted some seventy-six educators of the country as to their views and experience in the matter. As the result of this co-opera- tive study it was concluded : ^ ^ that the one and only solu- tion of the problem of retardation is individual atten- tion— not individual instruction in the general sense of the term, but a study by the teacher of each child's defic- iences and their causes, the elimination of these causes, and perhaps irregular individual promotions, in addition to the stated regular promotions.''
As an evidence of the importance attached to the ques- tion of promotions, we may add that forty-six out of the seventy-six superintendents consulted signified their intention to discuss it in their next report. Almost all have departed from the older systems of promotion, and employ various methods to prevent retardation and failure of promotion. ^'Of the seventy-six educators, sixty- six require that special attention be given to the pupils in danger of failing, fourteen have special * catch up' classes, and ten have vacation school classes for non- promoted children." In reference to the efficiency of the vacation school the superintendent of Rutland, Vt., is quoted as saying that ninety per cent of the school chil- dren who attend four weeks of vacation school are pro- moted, and about ninety per cent of those thus promoted make good in the advanced grade the following year. In
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this way, it was said, very few pupils in the fifth grade and above really failed in doing one year's work.
It is noteworthy that forty-five of the educators expect the principal to see each pupil before marking him for non-promotion. Thirty-two expect the principal to require written explanation by the teacher as to each child before it may be held back. Thirty report that the written explanation gives the name of each child and the cause or causes of his non-promotion.
We should agree most eagerly with these regulations in regard to the office and duties of the principal in supervis- ing all promotions, maintaining the standards established by his school, and preventing the grave consequences which come from repeated failures. With him would also rest the duty of recording the school history of the child, and averting in each case the possibility of leaving school before the course has been completed. The teacher, we judge, can also show his best influence here. Not waiting until the last year of school life to develop it, he should by his constant association with the child seek to fasten upon him the power of the school and school surround- ings, so that he will regret to leave — regret to part with the good things and noble teachers he has learned to respect and to love, and whose sympathy he has under- stood. Someone has said that the highest qualification of the teacher is sympathy — sympathy with the child's wants and needs, knowing them and administering unto them. On this standard could any teacher hope to be better qualified than the Catholic and especially the religious, whose life is dedicated to the service of others, sympathy with whom is impossible without love, and service incomplete without sacrifice?
And what school should be more attractive than ours, or to take firmer hold on the affections of the child ! An integral part of a great teaching institution, its best lessons are associated with the deepest things in child
Retardation and Elimination of Pupils 653
life and nature, and its rudest tasks are blessed and made holy by the approval of a Master whose infinite love embraces first the innocent and the young. With efficient teachers, and it is our sacred duty to have no other kind, the Catholic school should be the children's paradise, the ^ ^ Paradisetto, ' ' as an ancient Catholic school was called, or the ''Casa Jocosa," like a famous Italian school of the Eenaissance, where the brightest years of life were not darkened by dull or uninteresting tasks, but made brighter and happier in a wholesome Catholic environ- ment. With its noble traditions for free elementary edu- cation which go back to early apostolic times, to the parish school of Edessa, where in the second century the priest Protegenes taught little children the elements of learning and Christian Doctrine, our Catholic school of today ought to be in this, as in any other question affect- ing the efficiency of the common schools, the first to profit by every worthy effort for advancement.
Patrick J. McCormick.
THE FIEST SESSION OF THE SUMMER SCHOOL OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY.
If the perfect whole of truth is to be attained in eternity alone, then all life is made np of a series of approxima- tions to truth. To me, the Summer School of the Catholic University was one of these approximations, a marked and brilliant one. Though a Catholic all my life and a religious for twenty-five years, this Summer School of the Catholic University of America was a new revelation to me of the Holy Catholic Church.
Among the Sisters gathered there from north to south and from ocean to ocean of this vast continent and trained in Orders and Congregations owing their existence to founders and foundresses from all over the world, amongst the reverend professors and their co-workers brought from many lands and many alma maters, there yet breathed forth but one spirit, one heart, one soul, a truly divine unity in all-embracing Catholicity.
The Catholic University has had its vicissitudes, not unknown to those afar, and it was with wondering ques- tion in their minds that many accepted of this first tenta- tive hospitality to nuns, waiting to learn of it through personal contact. But three days had hardly passed before a general confidence was won, a confidence which united all hearts and continued to deepen on unto the end of those fruitful ^ve weeks. And frequent subject of con- versation among the Sisters was the general growing sense of all that the Catholic University now means, of the orthodoxy, mental power, fervor of spirit and gen- erous devotedness amongst the faculties; best of all, of the unity, holiness. Catholicity and apostolicity reigning there.
The First Session op the Summer School 655
As Monsignor Shahan received those streams of Sisters pouring into the University grounds on the two days pre- vious to the actual opening of the Summer School, there may well have flashed across his mental vision the simili- tude of the river-lock withdrawn and the consequent pour- ing forth of all the waters. The Catholic University has withdrawn its barriers, and the teaching Sisters of the United States and Canada have joyfully entered and over- flowed its halls! But this is hardly a fair comparison, because the Catholic University has done so much more than merely open its gates; it has extended us — we will not say a royal, but a Christian welcome. The sense of the timeliness of this Summer School, of the gaping need it now begins to fill, of the great promise it holds forth, and the consequent feelings of relief, contentment, even joy, seemed to rise from all hearts like an essence, per- vading the atmosphere. How many of us said, first to our own souls, and then more expansively to each other: ^* Happily now, no more universities and professors and correspondence courses for us but those provided by Holy Mother Church!''
The exigencies of the times are making such demands upon the teaching Sisters as to strain their endurance to the snapping point. To save the faith of our children, and often, indeed, of their parents, the grade schools are not enough. The Catholic Educational Association in Chicago last July sufficiently demonstrated that Catholic high schools must follow in every city and town over this vast country; and high school and academy teachers should themselves have had a college education. Hence, for another twenty-five years to come, in order to prepare the needed teachers and establish the new high schools, labors even heroic are called for and every assistance possible from God and Holy Mother Church. They have come to our aid in this present action of the Catholic Uni- versity of America.
656 The Catholic Educational Review
The classes of the Summer School began promptly, as scheduled, at eight o'clock Monday morning, July third, and continued in an orderly and systematic way not expected in the initial stage of any undertaking. The thir- teen courses in Education were especially rich: Princi- ples of Education and Primary Methods by Dr. Shields, with his widely known erudition, experience and conta- gious enthusiasm; the valuable History of Education I and II by such able scholars as Dr. Turner and Dr. McCormick; the intensely interesting Psychology of Edu- cation, full of stimulation and suggestion to teachers, from the original genius of Dr. Moore; and Miss Maguire's excellent and most helpful course in Methods of Training the Backward Child; while the charm of the one subject supreme in all hearts. Methods of Teaching Religion, and its masterly development by Dr. Pace, were attested by the largest gathering of any of the individual classes, quite overflowing the great capacity of McMahon Hall's Museum, and despite the necessary absence of the Geometry, English and Latin students, whose classes were in session at the same hour. There were large and enthu- siastic classes for both the Philosophy Courses: Dr. Pace's originality and concrete method of presentation in the General Psychology and Dr. Turner's crystal clear- ness in his method of imparting Logic, were frequent sub- jects of conversation and praise among the student Sis- ters. Of the Science courses I had no personal experience but heard only praise of the professors, and the same of the Art, Music, and Library Science Courses. The Sisters had full benefit of all the advantages of a great university — of its well-filled laboratories, its unusually fine libra- ries, the assiduous attention of the Registrar and all the officials of the University, thoughtful consideration everywhere — while the Rt. Rev. Rector and the Faculty seemed to give themselves up unreservedly to providing for our every need.
The Fikst Session of the Summer School 657
But perhaps what touched the Sisters most of all was the evident solicitude of the Et. Eev. Eector and his Eev- erend Associates that all should be carried on with rever- ent regard to the consecrated, religious life of the Sisters. They were given full opportunity for their various relig- ious exercises, at least morning and evening, and, at any time, intercourse with Our Blessed Lord in the tabernacle. The beautiful chapel of Divinity Hall is endeared to them by precious graces received there, not the least of which were the fervent exhortations delivered by the Et. Eev. Eector on the duties and privileges of the religious life.
Of the professors it is only truth to say that their evi- dent ability, their devotion to their work, and the gener- osity with which they gave their time are beyond praise. It was palpable that God^s blessing hovered lovingly over this first session of the Summer School. Peace pervaded all its halls, *'that peace which the world cannot give,'' and even joy. Cause enough for rejoicing! It was a great need supplied ; it was a new work begun for God and souls ; divine love united all hearts and held forth rainbow promise of God's continued benediction. One of the Sis- ters remarked that it seemed as if something of the spirit of the first Christians lived amongst us there in Divinity and McMahon Halls, and who will gainsay her? It remains now for all to do what they can to further the success of the Sisters' College, already begun under immense difficulties but with the indefatigable zeal of those whose labors and prayers have at last brought it about. Every great work has its pioneers, and we all know to whose untiring zeal the Correspondence Courses and the Summer School and the Sisters College are espe- cially due. God prosper them all and the Catholic Uni- versity of America, now truly our alma mater !
Uesulines of St. Ursula Convent, 1339 East McMillan St.,
Cincinnati, Ohio.
THE SUMMEE SCHOOL
REPORT OF THE SECRETARY
The first session of the Summer School at the Catholic Uni- versity was officially opened Sunday July 2, and was closed Sunday, August 8. On both occasions all the members of the School attended Solemn High Mass, celebrated in the Chapel of Divinity College by the Rt. Rev. Rector, who also delivered an appropriate address. Lectures, laboratory work and other exercises began Monday^ July 3, and continued, on five days of each week, until August 5. With the exception of a few courses given in Caldwell Hall, the work was conducted in McMahon Hall. The school day lasted from 8. a. m. to 6 p. m., with a recess of two hours at noon.
A list of instructors and a program of the courses were pub- lished in the May number of the Review. It was later found necessary to supply courses in Greek and these were given by Rev. George W. Hoey, S. S. An additional instructor in Latin was also secured. Rev. Benjamin F. Marcetteau, S. S. The total number of instructors was 24, including 6 lecturers who are not members of the University stajff. The officers of the Summer School Faculty were : Rev. Thomas E. Shields, Ph. D., Dean; Rev. Edward A. Pace, Ph. D., Vice-Dean; Rev. Patrick J. McCormick, Ph. D., Secretary; Mr. Charles F. Borden, Reg- istrar. In all, 36 courses were given : 32 of 25 lectures each, 3 of five lectures each, and 1 course of ten lectures — a total of 825 lectures. The laboratory exercises included 50 hours each in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. At the close of each course, a written examination was taken by students who desired academic credits counting for degrees, A series of evening lec- tures (illustrated) was given by Very Rev. A. P. Doyle, Su- perior of the Apostolic Mission House.
STUDENTS
In accordance with the preliminary announcement, the School was open only to the teaching Sisterhoods and to women
The Summer School — Keport of Secretary 659
teachers in public or private schools. The total registration was 284 ; of this number 255 were religious, representing 23 or- ders or congregations ; 29 were lay teachers. According to na- tionality: the United States had 274 representatives; Canada, 9; England, 1.
CLASSIFICATION OP STUDENTS
Religious (23) :
Benedictines 36
Blessed Sacrament 3
Charity 11
Charity of the B. V. M,. 6 Charity of the Incarnate
Word 4
Divine Providence 9
Dominicans 27
Gray Nuns of the Cross. 6
Holy Child 2
Holy Cross 9
Holy Names 8
Humility of Mary 2
Immaculate Heart 7
Jesus Mary 7
Loretto 4
Mercy 52
Missionary Helpers of S.
H 4
Notre Dame, Congrega- tion of 2
Providence 8
St. Francis 5
St. Joseph 31
St. Mary 6
tJrsulines 6
Lay Teachers 29
Dioceses (56) :
Albany 7
Alton 3
Baker City 1
Baltimore 46
Boston 1
Brooklyn 8
Buffalo 11
Chicago 4
Cincinnati 4
Cleveland 6
Concordia 4
Covington 5
Dallas 3
Davenport 2
Detroit 5
Dubuque 6
Duluth 2
Erie 6
Fall River 1
Galveston 1
Harrisburg 8
Hartford 6
Indianapolis 8
Kansas City 2
La Crosse 2
Lead 2
Leavenworth 2
London, Ontario 2
Louisville 1
Manchester 1
Mobile 4
Montreal 4
Nashville 2
Newark 17
New Orleans 4
New York 15
Ogdensburg 2
Oklahoma 5
Oregon City 2
Peoria 6
Philadelphia 14
Pittsburgh 4
Providence 1
Quebec 3
Richmond 4
St. Augustine 2
660
The Catholic Educationaij Eeview
St. Louis
St. Paul
San Antonio
Scranton
Toledo
Tucson
Westminster (Eng.)
Wheeling
Wilmington
Vic. Ap. North Carolina,
States (31) :
Alabama 4
Arizona 1
Connecticut 6
District of Columbia 29
Florida 2
Illinois 13
Indiana 8
Iowa 8
Kansas 6
Kentucky 6
Louisiana 4
Maryland 17
Massachusetts 2
Michigan 5
Minnesota 4
Missouri 9
New Hampshire 1
New Jersey 17
New York 43
North Carolina 5
Oklahoma 5
Ohio 12
Oregon 3
Pennsylvania 36
Khode Island 1
South Dakota 2
Tennessee 2
Texas 12
Virginia 6
West Virginia 3
Wisconsin 2
Canada 9
England 1
The religious were accommodated in Albert Hall, Caldwell Hall, St. Thomas' College and the Apostolic Mission House, on the grounds of the University ; in Trinity College, Holy Cross Academy, the Benedictine Convent, the Dominican Convent, Sacred Heart Academy, St. Catherine's, the Immaculata Sem- inary and Georgetown Convent. They were provided with every facility for the performance of their religious duties and of the exercises special to each community. The usual weekly de- votions, with Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament, were held in the chapel of Divinity College.
Efficient assistance was rendered by the Welcome Committee of the National Catholic Woman's Circle who met the Sisters on their arrival and directed them to their respective places of residence. For courtesies extended in the way of transpor- tation, acknowledgement is due the City and Suburban Line of the Washington Kailway and Electric Company and the Mt. Vernon and Marshall Hall Steamboat Company.
Pleasant and instructive excursions were conducted for the sisters on the holidays. The Capitol, Library of Congress,
The Summeb School — Eeport of Secretary 661
U. S. Treasury, Bureau of Printing and Engraving, were each visited and their features pointed out by efficient guides. On July 8, all enjoyed a delightful sail to Mount Vernon, where they were cordially received by the superintendent of the grounds who personally showed them over the historic site. The Sisters placed a beautiful wreath on the tomb of George Washington. July 13, President Taft received the entire student body at the White House, and greeted each sister and lay teacher individually. His Excellency, the Apostolic Dele- gate, Diomede Falconio, favored the School with his presence on the afternoon of Sunday, July 9. On this occasion the stu- dents congregated in the Chapel of Divinity Hall and listened to an inspiring address from the Delegates who afterward imparted the Apostolic Benediction. Benediction of the Most Blessed Sacrament followed at which His Excellency presided. Tuesday, August 1, His Eminence, James Cardinal Gibbons, Chancellor of the University, visited the Summer School, and was tendered a reception by the professors and students. The Et. Eev. Rector made the address of welcome to the Cardinal who responded with an enthusiastic discourse on the signifi- cance of the First Session of the University Summer School. At the close of the exercises each student was presented to the Cardinal.
Patrick J. McCormick^
Secretary.
CURRENT EVENTS
CHICAGO MEETING OF CATHOLIC EDUCATORS
The Eighth Annual Convention of the Catholic Educational Association, held in Chicago June 25-29, has been declared the most successful meeting in the history of the Association. Dele- gates from all parts of the country attended, representing the principal archdioceses and dioceses, the teaching orders of men and women, and the leading Catholic educational insti- tutions from the universities down to the elementary schools. The sessions took place at De Paul University, the General Assembly and the Parish School Department occupying the College Theater, an immense auditorium, which was crowded daily.
At the opening Mass Most Rev. Archbishop Quigley, of Chi- cago, tendered the delegates a cordial welcome, and paid a notable tribute to the great work of the Association. He said in part: "We of the pulpit are constantly holding before the eyes of our people, and urging upon them the attainment of the highest ideals of Catholic religious and social life in old and young, especially the young upon whom we rely for the better realization of these ideals in Catholic life. If Catholic ideals are ever to be realized, by what agency shall it be effected ? By our Catholic schools mainly, though not wholly. Church, family and school are co-operating for the creation of the ideal Catholic life, but of this trinity of forces, hardly separable in action, the school is the most potent and far-reaching. True it is that the school cannot exert fully its powers for good without the support of the clergy and people from whom are to come the children and the material means to carry on the work of education with a success commensurate with the ability of the teacher. It is our part to build the schools and to equip them, so as to give the teacher the most favorable environment, and above all to place under the teacher the best possible children, prepared in home and Church for the formative work of the teacher.
CuKEENT Events 663
"You teachers will admit that clergy and people are giving you the best possible aid in the prosecution of your work. Our schools are admirably built and equipped. Our children are the best in the world, even in the environment of our American cities, bright, docile, respectful of authority, obedient, affec- tionate, and altogether lovable. With these conditions existing generally, what shall I say of the results of your work, as it has been my duty and opportunity to observe them? From the kindergarten up through the graded school, high school and college to the university, it gives me pleasure to say, in the name of clergy and people, to you delegates, teachers and friends of Catholic education, of which you are the exponents, that its results have been in every department most gratifying and worthy of the highest commendation. The masses are being trained in the knowledge, love and service of God. Young hearts are being filled with holy thoughts, and young minds with the knowledge of holy things, and our whole national life is being leavened with Christian principles."
Rt. Rev. Mgr. Thomas J. Shahan, president of the Associa- tion, delivered an inspiring address at the opening session. He reviewed the work of the Association, and showed its practical effects in gathering together and harmonizing the Catholic educational forces of this country. Although without any legis- lative power, the Association^ he declared, had been the most potent agent in the movement for a thorough systematization of Catholic schools.
The first paper to be read, "The Report of the Committee on Secondary Education," by the Very Rev. James J. Burns, C. S. C, Ph. D., sounded the keynote for one of the most fruitful discussions of the meeting. The present state of Catholic sec- ondary education in this country was clearly depicted with the aid of statistics gathered by the committee, and the means for the development of a system of central Catholic high schools were enthusiastically considered. This question recurred fre- quently in the general and departmental meetings, and invari- ably elicited an interesting expression of opinion and expe- rience. "The Pastor and Education in Advance of the Grade School," by Very Rev. James F. Green, O. S. A., sustained inter- est in the same question and like the first paper treated of the
664 The Catholic Educational Eeview
matter of affiliation with non-Catholic institutions. In the discussion of these papers the following were heard : Very Rev.
E. A. Pace, of the Catholic University ; Rev. Robert W. Brown, of Grand Rapids, Mich.; Rt. Rev. Mgr. P. R. McDevitt, of Philadelphia, Penn.; Rev. M. J. Dorney, of Chicago, and the Rt. Rev. Joseph Schrembs, Auxiliary Bishop of Grand Rapids.
The Seminary Department throughout all of its meetings considered the Relation of the Seminary to Our Educational Problem. Papers were supplied by Very Rev. Dr. E. A. Pace, Rev. Francis V. Corcoran, C. M., D. D., of Kenrick Seminary, St. Louis, Mo., and by Rev. Francis J. Van Antwerp, of Detroit, Mich., on various phases of this subject Which for three days was very freely discussed.
The College Department opened with the paper of Rev. Tim- othy Brosnahan, S. J. (of Loyola College, Baltimore, Md.), on ^'The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Its Aims and Tendencies." The administration of the fund established by Andrew Carnegie in 1905, was severely criticized as "furthering the interests of non-sectarian teaching, and tending to put the teaching profession in a condition of aca- demic subservience and slavish subjection." In this department also, the Rev. Alphonsus Dress, of St. Joseph's College, Dubuque, Iowa, read a paper on "The Position Which Music Should Occupy in a College Course." The different sections for the study of questions pertaining to Greek and Latin, Modem Languages, History and the Sciences, had their separate papers and discussions.
In the Parish School Department Brother Luke Joseph,
F. S. C, of La Salle Academy, Kansas City, Mo., read the first paper entitled : "Our Children and Their Life Work." Brother Marcellinus, of Fort Wagne, Md., and Brother Julian Xavier, of St. Xavier's College, Louisvillle, Ky., opened the discussion. Two other papers which prepared the delegates for an interest- ing exchange of opinion were : "Some Educational Errors," by Rev. Robert B. Condon, D. D., of La Crosse, Wis., and "Retarda- tion and Elimination of Pupils in Our Schools," by Rev. P. J. McCormick, Ph. D., of the Catholic University. Rev. Aloysius Garthoeffner, Superintendent of Catholic Schools, St. Louis, Mo., and Brother George Ebert, S. M., of Dayton, Ohio, read very practical papers in this discussion.
CuRBENT Events 665
The Superintendent's Section of the Parish School Depart- ment held two important meetings. "Vocational Teaching in the Grammar Schools," on which Very Rev. T. E. Shields, Ph. D., of the Catholic University reported, and "Should the Grammar School Course Be Shortened?" contributed by Rev. E. A. Lafontaine, chairman of the section, gave point and direc- tion to the deliberations of the superintendents and community inspectors who are members of this section.
The Local Teachers' Meetings on Wednesday and Thursday afternoons were largely attended by the sisters, brothers and clergy. With the exception of the paper on "Frequent Com- munion of Students Promoted by Organization," contributed by one of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, all of the papers were supplied by the teaching sisters attending the convention. They dealt with the practical problems of elementary school work, and a series of five treated the Aim of Elementary Education from different viewpoints.
The resolutions of the Association embodied a deep appre- ciation of the cordial reception given by the Most Rev. Arch- bishop, the clergy and people of Chicago, and tendered thanks to the Vincentian Fathers for the use of De Paul University. Those of the General Association were as follows :
1. Whereas, the Catholic Educational Association recog- nizes as its mission the furthering of Catholic education under the guidance of the Church ; be it
Resolved, That we hereby pledge to His Holiness, the one accredited and infallible teacher of Truth, our fealty, our service and our devotion.
2. Whereas, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is a private educational agency which is attempt- ing to exercise an undue and an irresponsible supervision over the institutions of higher learning in this country, which aims at dechristianizing American education, which is, there- fore, a menace to our intellectual and moral wellbeing as a people; be it
Resolved, That this Association deprecate the illiberal and sectarian attitude of the Foundation toward American uni- versities and colleges of standing and established repute.
666 The Catholic Educational Review
3. Whereas, the desire of Catholic teachers to obtain advanced training is a healthy sign of progress ; be it
Resolved, That in the judgment of this Association the interests of Catholic education can be safeguarded against the prevailing naturalistic tendencies only by such instruc- tion being had under Catholic auspices.
4. Whereas, excellent work is being done in the field of Catholic secondary education; be it
Resolved, That this Association recognize and approve the development of the Catholic high school movement.
5. Whereas, grave danger confronts our people in the unsound economic and sociological theories of the day and in the irreligious tendencies of modern educational methods ; be it
Resolved, That this Association urge upon Catholic teach- ers the necessity of directing their pupils to Catholic institu- tions of higher learning.
6. TMiereas, the University Extension Movement, the Read- ing Circle Movement, and the Catholic Summer School Move- ment, constitute an educational fact of great importance and promise, insofar as they supplement the work of Catholic schools, academies and colleges; be it
Resolved, That we recognize and commend these movements to the Catholic public.
Resolutions of the Parish School Department:
1. We testify to and recognize with filial gratitude the excellent results that have followed the recent legislation of our Holy Father, Pius X, in the matter of the early admis- sion of our children to the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.
2. We urge upon pastors and teachers solicitous care of those children who seem to be especially favored by grace, that from their number there may come priestly and religious vocations to bless their work and to contribute to the spread of the kingdom of God in human life.
3. We desire to emphasize the fact that the aim of elemen- tary education is discipline — the training of the will to habits of virtue, study, and industry. We protest against any ten-
CuKRENT Events 667
dency to replace it by seeking to procure in the first place mere information or mere manual or mental efficiency.
4. We recognize the need of reverence and respect for authority, if religious and civil institutions are to be firmly grounded. We demand them as the portion of the products of a Catholic system of education.
5. Anxious to preserve the fruits of Catholic education in our parochial schools, and recognizing the imperative needs of the continued training of our Catholic youth in faith and morals during the perilous years of adolescence, we urge upon pastors and parents the establishment and development of Catholic secondary schools wherever existing conditions permit.
6. Since good drawing and good penmanship give adequate training to eye and hand for elementary education and serve as efficient preparation for vocational training, we strongly recommend that these branches receive careful and constant attention in our schools.
7. We protest against those influences that would lessen the attachment of the child to its home ; against the debase- ment of its moral nature by vicious or indecent spectacles that seek the patronage of children, and we urge that the child's love of home be fostered in every possible way, and that he be taught to appreciate and to love the art that has grown out of religion, the Christian art of this and of other centuries.
DIOCESAN teachers' INSTITUTE
Over 170 teachers of the Catholic schools of the diocese of Monterey and Los Angeles attended the Eighth Annual Teach- ers' Institute of the diocese, which was held July 5-9, at Columbia Hall, Santa Monica. The Et. Rev. Thomas J. Conaty, Bishop of Monterey and Los Angeles, presided over all of the sessions of the Institute, and delivered many of the lectures. The program of lectures follows :
July 5. Bishop Conaty, Opening Address.
Prof. T. H. Kirk, A. M., formerly Superintendent of State Schools, Minn., "The Art of Reading." Miss Mary Boyd
668 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Ludlow, "Ear and Lip Training, and Phonics in the First Grade." Mr. Thomas Lawler, Ph. D., of New York City, "The Teaching of American History." Mr. H. P. Conway, A. M., formerly Professor of Mathematics, St. Thomas College, St. Paul, Minn., "Arithmetic." Brother Leo, St. Mary's College, Oakland, Cal., "What is Literature?"
July 6. Brother Leo, "The Teaching of Composition." Miss Carrie Truslow, Assistant Superintendent of Schools, Los Angeles, Cal., "Demonstration Class, and Music in the Pri- mary Grades." Miss Ludlow, "Reading and Literature: Story Telling in the Primary Grades." Bishop Conaty, "Church Symbolism." Prof. Kirk, "The Meaning, Form, and Spelling of Words." Mr. Lawler, "The Philippines (Illus- trated).
July 7. Brother Leo, "The Basis of Correctness in English." Bishop Conaty, "First Communion of Children." Mr. Con- way, "High School Mathematics." Miss Ludlow, "Dramatiza- tion and Busy Work in the Primary Grades." Rev. John J. Ford, S. J., of St. Ignatius College, San Francisco, Cal., "Catechetics and Character." Mr. Lawler, "Japan." (Illus- trated.)
July 8. "The Religious Element in the Teaching of Literature." Prof. Kirk, "Organized Civics." Miss Truslow, "Selections and Music in the Grades." Father Ford, "The Methods of Catechetics." Bishop Conaty, "Literature."
DEATH OF EMINENT EDUCATOR
The Rt. Rev. Denis J. Flynn, President Emeritus of Mt. St. Mary's College, Emmitsburg, Md., who died July 7, after a long illness, had been for many years one of our most active educational workers. While President of the College, from 1894 until June of this year, he was a prominent figure in Catholic College circles, and an enthusiastic promoter of the Catholic Educational Association on whose executive board he long held oflSce. During his presidency Mt. St. Mary's has grown steadily, and invariably maintained its excellent tradi- tions for scholarship and Catholic training.
Monsignor Flynn was a native of Titusville, Ky. He studied at "The Mountain," making there his collegiate and seminary
CuREENT Events 669
courses. As a young priest he labored in St. Mary's parish, and afterward in St. Patrick's Cathedral, Wilmington, where he was pastor until 1899 when called to the faculty of Mt. St. Mary's. His elevation to the rank of Domestic Prelate with the title of Monsignor, made public October 12, 1910, by Cardi- nal Gibbons, was received with universal satisfaction, and called forth many notable expressions of admiration for his work as a churchman and educator.
IMPORTANT DECISION FOR CATHOLIC SCHOOLS
The question of allowing children of Catholic schools to attend the city or state schools for the purpose of obtaining instruction in manual training, has received renewed attention because of an important opinion rendered by the Attorney General of Massachusetts. Eev. S. P. Dunphy, pastor of St. Francis Church, Boston, had requested the local authorities to allow the pupils of a parish school to attend the manual train- ing lessons at Mark Hopkins School, a city and state institu- tion. The matter was referred to Dr. David Snedden, State Commissioner of Education, who called a meeting of the State Board to consider it. The Board asked for an opinion from the Attorney General. In his decision the latter said :
"If the pupils of the parochial school are to use the rooms and equipment of the normal school or of the public schools, as classes to be formed and controlled by their teachers and sent to the normal school or to the public schools for instruction as a part of or supplementary to the course of instruction at the parochial school, it might well be held to be obnoxious to the spirit if not to the letter of the constitutional provision above (18 amendment), especially if such use were made at times when the rooms of the normal school or the public schools are not open to persons other than the class in question.
"On the other hand, if the pupils of the parochial schools are to attend at times when facilities of the normal school or the public schools are open to other pupils to avail themselves of the privilege and share with other children the instruction, if any such instruction is given, I do not think that because at other hours they have been at a parochial school, and not
670 The Catholic Educational Review
at a public school, is any ground for refusing them the benefit of attending. They should, however, attend as individuals and be subject to the control only of the school authorities who undertake to give the instruction desired.
^'That is, if the school board thinks it wise to admit special students who are not required to attend public schools for any other instruction to special courses in manual training, I see no reason why they may not do so under reasonable restric- tions. The fact that the pupils so admitted obtain the remainder of their education at a parochial school would not necessarily debar them."
GIFTS TO CATHOLIC COLLEGE
At the Commencement Exercises of the College of Mount Saint Vincent-on-Hudson, held June 6, announcement was made of the following generous gifts received during the year :
The Elizabeth Seton Scholarship, presented in honor of the Golden Jubilee of Mother Mary Kose, by the Alumnae Asso- ciation. The Louise Le Gras Scholarship, also a Jubilee gift from several friends. Our Lady of Good Counsel Scholarship, presented by the Misses Mackey, of New York. An endowment fund of |1,000, by Mrs. Joseph J. Donohue, of New York, for a prize of |50 to be awarded annually. An endowment fund of |1,000, by Miss Mary Hogan, of New York, for an annual prize of |50. A purse of |50, for 1911, by the Rev. James W. Powers, of New York. A purse of |25 for 1911, by Mr. William P. O'Connor, of New l^ork. A donation of |500, from Rev. Charles W. Corley, of Yonkers, N. Y., the first contribution to the Building Fund. A purse of $25 for excellence in the course in Religion, from a reverend friend. A valuable paint- ing from Miss Anna Dunphy. Several rare books from Mr. and Mrs. Julian Detmer, besides 2,000 volumes d'^iated by various persons interested in the College library.
AN efficient superior AND ORGANIZER
Rev. Mother Scholastica Kerst, who died June 11 at Duluth, Minn., was the foundress of the Benedictine institutions con- ducted by sisters in the diocese of Duluth, and one of the most
CuREENT Events 671
widely known religious of the Northwest. In 1892, a few years after the creation of the diocese of Duluth, the Rt. Rev. James McGolrick, D. D., invited Mother Scholastica to establish her order in the diocese. From a very modest beginning the com- munity has grown rapidly, and now numbers 175 members. Under Mother Scholastica's administration many important foundations were made, among which were five hospitals, the Sacred Heart Institute, the Villa Sancta Scholastica, mother house of the order and academy for young ladies, and several parish schools.
Mother Scholastica was born in Mueringen, Germany. Her parents came to this country in 1852, when she was five years old, and settled in St. Paul, Minn. She entered the Benedictine Order when fifteen years old, spending her early years prin- cipally in Shakopee, and St. Joseph, Minn. Elected Mother Superior of the Benedictines of St. Cloud diocese in 1880, she was there engaged in the constructive work of her order until called in 1892 to her long and fruitful mission in the diocese of Duluth.
SUMMER SCHOOL AT DB PAUL UNIVERSITY
The success of the first session of the De Paul University Summer School held in Chicago, has induced the faculty to announce that the same will be continued next year and that during the coming school year educational courses will be offered to teachers of the public and parish schools. The latter will be known as the University Extension Work to distinguish it from the Summer School courses. The registration of the Summer School was 125 and included : Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary from Chicago, 111., and Dubuque, Iowa; Franciscan Sisters from Joilet, 111.; Dominican Sisters from New York; Sinsinawa, Wis.; Springfield, 111.; Adrian, Michi- gan, and Chicago ; Sisters of Mercy from Ottawa, 111. ; Sisters of Notre Dame from West Pullman, 111.; Sisters of St. Benedict from Nauvoo, 111. ; Sisters of Providence from St. Mary-of-the- Woods, Ind. ; and lay teachers from Chicago and various places in Ohio and Kentucky.
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The professors of the different courses were as follows: Philosophy, Dr. Corcoran, of Kenrick Seminary, St. Louis, Mo. ; English, Dr. Osthoff, of St. Thomas Seminary, Denver, Col.; History, and Literature, Dr. O'Hagan, editor of the New World, Chicago; History, Very Rev. F. X. McCabe, President of De Paul University ; Astronomy, Rev. D. J. McHugh, of the University; Latin, Rev. William J. Kelly, Johhn E. Green, James E. Lilley, of the University; Mathematics, Martin V. Moore and John E. Green, and James E. Lillie, Director of Studies of the University; Oratory, Miss Farrell, formerly of Northwestern University ; French, Miss Garnier ; Drawing, Mr. George W. Barnard, of the University; Chemistry, Mr. G. W. Heise, Dr. Arden J. Johnson, Mr. G. W. Lawson ; Biology, Dr. N. A. Alcock, of the University faculty.
Patrick J. McGormick.
The Catholic Educational Review
OCTOBER, 1911
WHAT THE FIRST SUMMER SCHOOL AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA WAS TO THE STUDENTS
For years my friends and I had longed with a great longing to attend a Summer School. The attainment of our desire, at first, seemed most indefioaitely remote, and, finally, began to look as if it was to be reserved as the very special triumph of a later generation. Yet we still dared to hope, even in the hour of deepest darkness. Then the unexpected happened. Some God-inspired men took thought of us, the army of struggling Convent- school teachers ; they examined our work closely and deemed it worthy of encouragement. How good it was to feel that we no longer stood alone and unchampioned ! The climax of our happiness came in the spring of 1911. It seems to me the joy we experienced when our Mother General an- nounced the Summer School a fact, and we, her students, chosen to attend, could not be exceeded on this side of eternity. May God bless everyone, from the Apostolic Delegate and the Cardinal down, who had anything to do with permitting, or promoting, or organizing the Summer School is, I am confident, the oft-repeated prayer of every teaching Sister in America.
Years of waiting added zest to enjoyment. But no words of mine can ever tell what the Summer School was to us when it did come. In the first place, it far surpassed all our hopes. Not, indeed, in the equipment, nor in the
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spacious halls of the University, not in the beautiful grounds with hill and dale, with their vastness and country solitude, and their remoteness from bustle and hurry — these were delightful, but they were only the set- ting fair and lovely of the richer jewels of culture, scholar- ship and kindness which we found in Brookland. It was these that went beyond our fondest hopes, and to such an extent that we began to think that at last we understood a little of the things the angels know, and something of what the Israelites must have felt when God manifested Himself to them on Sinai.
^^The happiness of Heaven must be intellectual enjoy- ment,'^ I said to a friend in an awed whisper as one of these soul-stirring lecturers left the platform, ^^an eter- nity like this could never pall on me. ' '
**It is perfectly grand," she replied as thoroughly wrapt in spirit as myself, *'yet I think there should be more than intellectual delight in the life beyond life.*'
It was good to be there in the calm of that higher, holier atmosphere, to compare the products and results of an age run mad with the erudition and earnestness, with the zeal and simplicity and faith of those who were spending themselves that we, also, might drink of the deep Pierian waters. Language could not be extravagant when applied to the Faculty of the Summer School of the Cath- olic University. We did expect to find ripe scholarship at that central seat of learning, else why travel across a con- tinent, or from ^neath another flag to profit by what it had to offer? But we did not expect to find with ^ ' the wisdom of all the ages," the zeal of the early Christians, an abiding love for souls, and the sweet lowliness and sim- plicity of Christ the King. We, who were strangers to the home-life of the University, were captivated from the start by the rare Catholic spirit of the place. The Univer- sity deserves to bear its name. Truly, in its establish- ment, God must have again looked over the void and
The First Summer School 675
repeated : * * Let there be light ! ' ' and light came to make new men of our and succeeding generations ; to raise up new Adams from the slime. Aptly, indeed, do people call Brookland: ^^The Holy City!'^
I listened to eminent professors every hour of the school day for five weeks of days ; I listened to the com- ments of my fellow-students on their professors, and thus it was I learned to know the manner of men with whom we had to do. Highest culture and the blessed humility of Christ make an admirable combination. Tell me, you who can, how did every professor of the Summer School succeed in acquiring both? We knew these men had searched the universities of Europe and America for the best scholarly acquirements. But where did the Catholic University Professors receive their training in all priestly virtues and manly accomplishments ? Religion dominated the lectures. We found God wherever we turned — God, wedded to His laws of nature in those ever-to-be-remem- bered lectures in science; God in His own proper place in history, languages, education, aesthetics. The Church ceremonies made us realize in a degree the meaning of: * ^ the eye of man hath not before seen, nor his ear heard, ^ * so perfect were High Mass and Benediction in every detail; so grand the singing under the able direction of Abbe Gabert.
We were there three hundred students. Those whom I had the pleasure to meet were women of experience. They came from the Far West and the South — from Ore- gon, Texas and Canada ; from the States of the Mid- West and those of the East. They were women whom it was a pleasure to know, representing upwards of sixty separate houses, and some twenty-six distinct Religious Orders. It ''was good to be there" with them, with that body of mature-minded women who were versed in values, who held intellectual pursuits only secondary to holiness. All were so eager to learn so ready to assist and impart, so
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sisterly and considerate in their relations with one another that they rendered the social conditions of the School exquisite. In the free hours, when scattered over the grounds, or resting under the beautiful trees, we dis- cussed at leisure questions of interest, resolved our doubts and made friends. The interchange of ideas was well worth another month of school.
There were other lessons to be learned that were not less helpful. Every casual meeting with a member of the Faculty was a new source of inspiration. One fortunate encounter with the Eight Eeverend Eector turned his steps and ours, the eight Sisters of the Holy Names group, to the Power-House the center of engineering activity. The work of the last June classes was on the black-boards, and as we examined it our thoughts ran on as usual to the great things the Catholic University was doing for the nation.
^^If we only had a Henry VII to found and endow all the colleges you need, ' ' one among us said to the Eector.
The remark drew forth a most interesting account of the political, social, and religious conditions that made Oxford and Cambridge possible. How we enjoyed that talk as we wended our way back to Divinity Hall! We were going through the University ^ * farm, ' ' and had come to a small ravine under overhanging trees, the air was what that of Eden might have been before the Fall of Adam, the Eector paused on the further side of the incline to complete the subject, while we drank in the interesting narrative, beautifully recounted with all the charming simplicity that makes true greatness fascinating. I cite this incident out of many, only to give the uninitiated a peep into the ideal life of the Summer School at the Cath- olice University.
We intentionally waylaid the Dean of the School, Eev. Dr. Shields, one of the greatest educators of our day, on every available occasion, *Ho hear something more about
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education.'* We knew through others that he was tired and grief- stricken, bereaved the previous week of a brother; but not in deed or word of his could we have known of his sorrow. His endurance, like his patience and his erudition, was inexhaustible. Never shall we for- get the hours we spent thrilled through and through by the rare qualities of his eloquence, or the delightful charm of his conversation.
I had heard so much of the other Professors from my fellow-students that I resolved, when I could, to hear each one lecture on his own special branch. Following out my resolution, I went to the sanctum where Dr. Turner's logic held his audience spell-bound, but I failed to find a vacant seat. I next turned to the Assembly Hall where Dr. Pace was lecturing on psychology, and both he and his listeners looked radiantly happy. The merry twinkle in his eye convinced me that where he was, there could be no monotony, and I recalled the Educational Meeting at Detroit. The lecture was in its last quarter, I regret to say, but like some weird creature the lecturer actually attacked the subject of heredity, on which I had had a recent burning discussion. I was pleased when the learned Doctor upheld the arguments I had used, but 1 was more delighted still with his manner, his style and his strength. The enthusiasm of his students was justified. Professor Landry seemed to me a source of central light, and all mathematics but the emanations of his brain ; and after listening repeatedly to Professor McCarthy I came away dreaming dreams of historical charts, and planning a scientific anatomical basis for every important period in American history, to be clothed later with the nerve and sinew, the muscle and flesh of well-correlated details. Mr. Hemelt, versed in Anglo-Saxon and Old English, in Mil- ton, and Byron, and Wordsworth, made the beauty and strength of our mother tongue very attractive. Clear and expansive in his lectures, we were enabled to bring away
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with us system as well as knowledge, methods whereby we can improve our own work in the school-room. After lecture hours he was always ready to help the many stu- dents who wished to appeal to his judgment on their liter- ary efforts. His candor and the enlightened encourage- ment he gave, were alone well worth the weeks spent at the Summer School. Mr. Crook was another of these indefatigable men who could not do enough for the Sis- ters. From early morn till late he was in the laboratory preparing the experiments for his physics class, or help- ing on some student in her work, always ready to answer the multitude of questions that was raised. The one regret of the entire class seemed to be that we could not have three years of such work under such direction and guidance.
These lecturers it was given me to enjoy. At the dinner hour and elsewhere I heard much of Dr. McCormick and Dr. Moore, of Professor Parker, Professor Doolittle and Professor Teillard, of Dr. Wagner and Dr. Weber and of Dr. Marcetteau and I know not of how many others. The students of each class came away convinced that they had the best lecture of the day. It did my heart good to listen to the whole-souled praise around me, feeling that each student had found more than she had come to seek.
We never realized before as we did at the University, that to Catholics belong the riches of the ages, and that as the Church in the past saved the effete Eoman civiliza- tioi;!, and refined barbarian nations and tribes and peo- ples, so it will again save a pagan age. Eev. Father Doyle added strength to this conviction. By his lectures on the Life of Christ we saw that the missionary spirit is still as energetic as ever, and as vital and effective.
The culture at the University is not the mere culture of the refined animal, but the deep-seated soul-culture that comes from the charity of Christ. There, the Master is the model held up for imitation. To Christ, the Divine
The Fiest Summer School 679
Educator, these guardians of youth go to learn wisdom; their methods are based on Christ ^s teachings in Galilee and on the Jordan. Of all the three hundred who fed and feasted at the banquet of the Summer School, I feel per- suaded that there is not one who will not emphatically endorse my verdict of its organization, its spirit, and its results.
I marveled how so many kind men could be found on the staff of any one institution, and as I write this the memory of Dr. Dougherty ^s. Father Vieban^s and Mr. Borden's thousand and one kindnesses come to mind. But I under- stand this is the normal atmosphere of the place. Dr. Dumont, S. S., a son of France of the old school, answered my friend's interrogatory in this wise: ^*I have been here seventeen years, Sister, and courtesy and kindness have always reigned.''
What the Summer School has been to us it is impos- sible to say. I have been now a fortnight at home, and 1 cannot shake off the spell that was cast upon me at Wash- ington. To me and to many the Summer School has been worth more than a retreat, for practical religion was beautifully blended with all we heard and saw. To us the University Faculty was a Providence. Whithersoever we turned for spiritual and intellectual food we found men who apparently had freed themselves from the shackles of self, ready and willing to answer our call for help.
**We owe so much to you for this Summer School," we repeatedly remarked to the Eector, ^Hhat we can never repay you."
The Rector began immediately to say that everybody but himself was instrumental in making the School the success it was. I told Dr. Shields of this conversation. ''Mgr. Shahan," the Dean replied, ''has always been an ardent, loyal supporter of the movement," and so the story ran on. How could any one fail to admire men humble enough to be great?
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It means mucli and very much to come in contact with the intellectual and the manly; with the Galahads of the nation, and absorb mental food in an atmosphere purified and permeated by religion. I know whereof I speak, for I have taken lecture courses at other universities and 1 am proud of the degrees they conferred on me. I have passed the days of youthful enthusiasm, and still I can say in all sincerity of soul, that the Catholic University seems to me to be the greatest blessing God has ever bestowed on America. As a Summer School center it is unequaled. It has the buildings and the equipment neces- sary. Its nearness to the Federal Capital affords stu- dents many excellent opportunities to perfect knowledge. There was our trip to Mount Vernon, for instance, and as I stood near the tomb of Washington, I thanked God that there were such men as those who were with us to save the great nation founded by him whom we had come to honor. Our reception at the White House by President Taft is a memory to cherish. The visit of Mgr. Falconio to the School and that of the Cardinal added color to the most precious days of life. The Physics class, accompa- nied by Father Doyle and Professor Crook, learned much that is valuable at the Bureau of Standards through the kindness of Mr. Fisher and his assistants. What we saw at the Capitol, the Congressional Library, the Bureau of Engraving, the Smithsonian Institute, etc., help to com- plete a liberal education.
We went to Washington realizing our needs; we returned more than satisfied with our brief school days, and strong in the belief that there is no educational insti- tution superior to the Catholic University. From 8 a. m. to 6 p. m. may seem long hours of class and study, but they were not long enough for students of the Summer School. We burrowed, when we dared, into the night to complete the studies of the day. These long hours of work were made easy and possible for us through the
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devotedness and kindness of the dear Sisters who pre- sided in the Halls, and saw to our comfort. The Sisters of Divine Providence in Divinity Hall, where our rooms were, deserve every praise. Even our little Saturday excursions had their kind leaders in Captain and Mrs. Coope, and Miss Eeilly. In giving these details I am not telling how refined their attentions were, no one could, 1 am only stating that the Summer School was an organized unit, every feature of which was characterized by culture and courtesy. Let me add that the courtesy did not end with closing day or at Washington. Eev. Father Vieban, S. S., with the innate delicacy that is his, accompanied the students to Baltimore, to enable us without loss of pre- cious time, to see what the old Maryland capital has to show its visitors. The world is not a hard world, or a bad world after all, when it can retain the best charm of the past combined with the highest good of the present — the perfection of spiritual and mental growth. All I could say would give only a dull, dim reflection of what the Sum- mer School was to me — to all its members. The beauty of it is, the effects are abiding. We go back to our school- rooms with increased knowledge, with methods perfected, with the ideal of Catholic education in broader, bolder relief, with a frequent: **God bless every member of the Summer School Faculty ! ' ' on our lips. The intellec- tual and spiritual loveliness that moved our souls to their very depths in this summer of 1911, give a new joy to life that cannot pass away.
A Sister of the Holy Names. Montreal, Canada.
DOCTOE LORENZ KELLNEE ^
The centenary of the birth of Dr. Lorenz Kellner, which was lately celebrated at Trier, united representatives of all the different groups and branches of Catholic teachers and educationalists in Germany. To the elementary teachers he is the ideal of one of their own, a progressive pedagogue and yet faithful to the good old traditions, a reformer of the method in teaching children their mother- tongue, not by grammatical exercises, but by the use of the best models of literature, the model of an inspector and administrator. Educationalists consider him their master who has shown them how the details of their work must be based on the fundamental principles of education, how the technical elements of school work may be made a useful instrument for the training of body, mind and will ; they see in him their model in dealing with the teachers and children by showing justice, kindness of heart, sym- pathy and encouragement, so as to make the visitation of the school a pleasure to all and an incentive to enthusiasm and new activity. Priests, professors, and others inter- ested in education, are grateful to him that by his writings he not only helped to reopen the treasures of the traditions of Catholic education to all, but that he gathered also from modern educationalists all the real good and sound results and combined the nova with the Vetera in harmo- nious union at a time when Catholic educationalists in Germany were only just awakening to the fact that they were in danger of being left behind by the non- Catholic educational movement aroused by Pestalozzi, Salzmann and Basedow.
One trembles to think of what would have become of
^ Born January 29, 1811, died August 18, 1892. A list and description of Kellner's works is given in Erinnerungsblatter by Adam Goergen, Trier, Paulinus-Druckerei, 1910.
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Catholic training colleges and consequently of Catholic elementary schools in Prussia and other parts of Ger- many during the years of the Kulturkampf had Kellner 's writings not helped to secure beforehand a body of loyal Catholic teachers who in those trying years upheld the principles of Catholic education in spite of the many temptations on the part of the authorities to make the vil- lage schoolmaster the antagonist of the priest, as the burgomaster was usually no match for him by want of education. It is, therefore, rather an understatement to say that Kellner was for the German Catholic teachers what Windhorst was for the Centre party, inasmuch as Kellner exercised his influence almost single-handed at least for a number of years.
His influence was, however, not limited to Prussia nor to the new German Empire, nor even to the German- speaking countries in its neighborhood, but extended also to other countries where his original works were not understood by the majority of educationalists. Father Bernard Dillinger writes from Scutari in Albania : ^ ^ No other pedagogue is for teachers of such significance as Kellner ; no one deserves better to be studied and consid- ered, to be explained and discussed; he towers above all pedagogues of the present time.'' The Catholic Teachers' Association of Tyrnan in Hungary predicts: ''Your name will shine amongst the stars in the sky of Catholic education forever, and posterity will be blessed through it." The Catholic teachers in Holland acknowledge with gratitude the help and encouragement they have derived from Kellner 's writings in times of stress and struggle, and they profess that he has inspired them with a super- natural view of their vocation, a strictly Catholic spirit and a joyful enthusiasm in the performance of their duties. Professor Parmentier, of Poitiers states : ''Kell- ner is a personality whom Frenchmen can no longer ignore. The principles of education which he laid down
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will secure permanency to his work and secure to his name one of the first places in the history of education. His rules of inspection are a model of practical pedagogy. Principles like his have the character of universality; they are applicable in all countries wherever there are schools."
To some critical spirit it might appear that these praises by his own coreligionists are perhaps due chiefly to the Catholic spirit and example, and not so much to the general educational value of his writings and his work. It will, therefore, be well to quote a few testimonials of non-Catholics. The Protestant Preussische Lehrerzeitung was fully aware that Kellner was not in harmony with the tendency of their 4mmortaP Falk (the author under Bismarck of the KuUurkampf laws), yet the editors acknowledge that amongst Catholic educationalists who by their efforts and works have gained in a high degree the appreciation and respect of non-Catholic teachers Dr. Kellner ranks foremost; that he secured their grati- tude and love by his clear conception of the purpose and end of elementary education, by his excellent handling of practical school questions, by his epoch-making method of instruction in the mother-tongue, by his ideal concep- tion of the teaching profession, and by his unshaken loy- alty to elementary teachers. Although he opposed the union of all German teachers into one association and promoted the combination of Catholic teachers, the organ of the former finds many things in his writings which are beneficial and worthy of imitation, and agrees that he deserves to be ranked with the great educationalists of the nineteenth century.
Schubert Polack, who knew him chiefly by his writings and by the work of the teachers Kellner helped to train at Heilingenstadt, calls him without reservation: ^*The model for all German Christian educators."
Perhaps the most striking testimony to Dr. Kellner 's
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work and worth is that of Dr. Dittes, the anti-Catholic director of the Pedagogium in Vienna. We cannot resist the temptation to quote in full what Dr. Dittes wrote in 1886 for Dr. Kellner ^s seventy-fifth birthday and his retirement from his official position: ** Although we do not share Dr. Kellner 's views on ecclesiastical and school- political questions, we acknowledge fully and unre- servedly the great value of Dr. Kellner 's literary and official work by which he benefited the schools both as to special method and as to general pedagogical matters. Whilst we pay our sincere homage to the jubilarian as to one of the most prominent German schoolmen, we wish him a long and cheerful time of rest and God's richest blessing."
A wish has been expressed that a collection of Dr. Kell- ner's writings should be published, containing, however, only those topics which are of general and lasting interest. If this were done, it would be a great boon to have a por- tion of the collection translated into English. Catholic education in North America, Australia, South Africa and the British Isles would gain considerably if Kellner 's principles were everywhere studied and applied and his example imitated. In the meantime it may, perhaps, be interesting and stimulating to those who are not able to read his works to know something of his life and of the way in which he gained so much influence on Catholic education in German- speaking countries.^
1. EARLY LIFE AND EDUCATION (1811 TO 1836)
Dr. Kellner 's father was a Catholic schoolmaster who later on became Director of the Training College at Heili- genstadt in Prussian Saxony. He was brought up in a
^ The writer takes this opportunity to express his indebtedness to the different works of Kellner in his boyhood, in the training college, and in his professional work. His only regret is that during the six weeks he spent in Trier in 1885 he had no opportunity of seeing the great man face to face.
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simple and strict way and developed early a strength of character which an effeminate education is unable to produce. His parents were not blessed with riches but made great sacrifices to give him a good education. From his twelfth year Dr. Kellner attended the Gymnasium at Heiligenstadt, but as he showed an inclination to become a priest and as his father hoped he might obtain an eccle- siastical scholarship, he went to Hildesheim in Hanover. The father's hope was not fulfilled, for as a Prussian subject he was considered a foreigner at Hildesheim, and the son noticing with increasing anxiety that his expenses caused embarrassment to his father generously gave up his heart's desire for the priesthood and, having decided to become a teacher, he entered the Training College at Magdeburg. We know no details of the time he spent there from the autumn of 1828 to the spring of 1831, but we have five of his certificates which testify to his knowl- edge, his character and his abilities as a teacher, both for normal children as well as the deaf mutes. The usual mark in the different subjects is ^ ^ excellent, ' ' there are a few * Wery goods,'' and the only low note he struck was in singing. For ^ve years he was a teacher in the elemen- tary schools of Erfurt, until in 1836 he was appointed by the Provincial Government Master at the Training Col- lege in Heiligenstadt. His education had fitted him emi- nently for this post and his early impressions and expe- riences had given a peculiar character to his whole life.
As he could not serve God and his Church as a priest, he devoted his whole life to the same cause as a teacher. A teacher and a friend of teachers he remained all his life and his sympathies with the children and the teaching profession were well known and appreciated by non-Cath- olics. Although Protestants of different classes from the highest officials in the province down to the humblest village schoolmaster knew and appreciated his broad- minded tolerance of the convictions of others, neither they
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nor his own coreligionists were ignorant of his sound Catholic spirit and his childlike piety. We see now clearly why Divine Providence prevented his ecclesiastical career, because he could do and did do such an amount of good to the schools in times and places where a Catholic priest would have been unable to exercise any influence, and his Catholic spirit was as ardent and as loyal as that of any priest.
On the other hand, it was a great gain that in his early youth he received a higher education and a better prepa- ration than elementary teachers even now can obtain before commencing their professional training. He became an exceptionally qualifiied master of a training college and later on both in his writings and in his official work he showed a grasp of principles and an accuracy of expression which can hardly be expected from one who has not enjoyed the advantage of a classical education.
There was another early impression which followed him through life and stimulated his activity, viz, the lack of method and enthusiasm in his early teachers, a defect which he helped others to correct by his writings. He says: *^What was wanting in many otherwise good men of that time was chiefly the proper method and the electric spark which in a vivifying manner springs from the master to the pupil and produces a magnetic bond between them. ' ' His special book on the method of Ger- man was intended to cure the first defect, his book on the History of Education the second; his works on general principles of education (Aphorismen, Volksschulkunde, Paedagogische Mitteilungen, Lose Blatter) serve both purposes.
2. MASTER AT THE TRAINING COLLEGE (1836-1848)
At the Training College in Heiligenstadt Lorenz Kell- ner found himself the youngest member of the staff and the collaborator of his father, an enthusiastic admirer of
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Pestalozzi. The younger Kellner surpassed his principal and his senior colleagues in knowledge and capacity, and to him fell the lion's share of work. He made his lectures interesting and stimulated the activity of his pupils to a high degree, so that they continued their education later on when they were acting as teachers. This zeal for pri- vate study has become a characteristic of elementary teachers in Germany, and there is no doubt that Kellner 's enthusiasm and example has been one of its chief sources. He was one of the first masters who introduced into the training college an elementary course of mental science, including, under the modest name of ^ ^ Denkuhungen/ ^ the chief topics of Logic and Psychology. This course is now an integral part of the programme of German training colleges and has done a great deal to raise educa- tional study above the level of mere mechanism and technical training.
Acting teachers in the ^^Eichsfeld/^ whose education had been deficient, but who were willing to supplement it, found ready helpers in the Kellners, senior and junior. They met their pupils under a mighty oak tree near the castle of Scharfenstein, still known as the *^ school- masters' oak." Many of these enthusiasts walked for miles to attend these meetings in order to gain instruction, advice, sympathy and encouragement for their hard but beneficient work. From the circumstances under which Kellner worked at Heiligenstadt we can readily under- stand that in his younger years his influence appealed more to the intellect; in later years he was able to lay more stress on the formation of the character and relig- ious training. Yet in his own life piety and charity were never overshadowed by intellectual pride. The common morning and night prayers of the students at which he presided were solid and edifying and by his attendance at the public services he was a model to his pupils both by his regularity and his reverence.
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His conduct towards his father was a living example to those who had an opportunity of witnessing it; the only difficulty of the latter seems to have been to ascertain whether the father was more fond and proud of his son or the son of his father.
With all his work, Kellner still found time for private study and for writing. It was his love for children which urged him to devote his leisure hours to literature. This habit followed him all through his busy life even to his last years of rest and retirement from public work. Dur- ing the years he spent at the Training College he must have felt keenly, as we do now in English-speaking coun- tries, the absence of Catholic works on the history of edu- cation. The non-Catholic literature in this branch fights shy of the Middle Ages, especially of Scholasticism, ignores their educational progress and results and prefers to call its principles and methods by modern names, as if they had been unknown until the nineteenth century. Kellner having always been an exact and ardent scholar of history set to work to supply the defect. By his Short History of Education (Kurze Geschichte der Erziehung und des Unterrichtes) he supplied a text-book for students at training colleges which is short enough for the limited time at their disposal and yet sufficiently long to set before the future teachers some of the work of past ages in a way calculated to inspire them with enthusiasm and to make them long for more. That fuller treatment of the same matter is found in his Erziehungs geschichte in Skizsen und Bildern which also supplies matter for lec- tures on this subject to busy masters at training colleges who cannot go to original sources. He helped to open these sources by acting as one of the chief editors of Herder ^s Paedagogische Bihliotheh, which consists of educational works of the past with introductions and com- mentaries so as to bring them up to the present termi- nology and thus to make them more intelligible and use-
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ful. He himself edited the fourth volume of this series, viz, Johann Michael Sailer's Paedagogisches Erstlmgs- werJc. When he consented to cooperate in the publication of this series he had no idea of the great services it was going to render to the Catholic teachers in Germany. At that time the study of such works was only required from a few. Now, every Prussian teacher at his first certificate examination (i. e., after two or three years' work in the school) must show a thorough knowledge of the work of a recognized author on education. It is very fortunate that Catholic teachers find works of this kind edited by Catholic educationalists which in every way compare favorably with non-Catholic editions. When the collection of Kellner's selected works appears there is no doubt that it will be included among the recognized publi- cations and thus will produce good results for years to come.
The six years spent at the Training College gave a certain bend to his character and activity ; but in his new capacity he found new needs and discovered new means of supplying them. Thus whilst he continued his literary work for the benefit of the aspirants to the teaching pro- fession and their masters he added to it other topics for the instruction, warning and encouragement of acting teachers.
3. scHULRAT (1848-1886)
The title ^^Schulraf in Prussia has a double meaning. Very often it is only an honorary distinction bestowed on an inspector of schools or the director of an educational institution. In its real sense it signifies the administrator of elementary education in a governmental district (Regierungshezirk) who is also a member of the govern- ment of the district. He is the superior of the inspectors, and has in his hands the appointment of all the elemen- tary teachers. He, therefore, combines the office of chief
DocTOK LoKENz Kellnee 691
inspector with that of administrator. The promotion of Kellner to such a post of honor and responsibility at the age of thirty-seven was undoubtedly exceptional, even in those times. It must have been due to the impression he made on the visitors of the Training College by his results, his conduct, and his literary work. His appoint- ment to a post in the far east of the kingdom at Marien- werder removed him for a time from the center of Cath- olic activity and from the circle of his friends, but it gave him also a more complete knowledge of the conditions and the needs of elementary education and elementary teach- ers which in its turn benefited both his literary and his official work of later years. He tells us hardly anything about his experience in Marienwerder, where he remained seven years (until July, 1855). We know, however, from his parish priest that less than a month before Kellner 's death, i. e., thirty-six years after he had left Marien- werder, some teachers from his former district who had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Coat were received by him as old friends and showed by their conduct that his memory was still green in east Prussia.
The last thirty-six years of his life Dr. Kellner spent in Trier, where he remained in the same capacity as Schul- rat until 1886. Up to that time this office in Trier, as in other Catholic districts, had been held by a priest. Grad- ually laymen were appointed, but it shows a great amount of tact on the part of the Prussian government of the time to soften the pain of the change by the appointment of so devout a Catholic as Kellner. At a later period such changes in educational offices were made with demonstra- tive tactlessness, especially in Catholic districts, not to the advantage of the feeling of loyalty. The original reserve of the clergy towards Kellner and the resent- ment of the change passed away as soon as his character was known and it proved the greatest blessing for Cath- olic schools in the district of Trier, that Dr. Kellner, who
692 The Catholic Educational Eeview
during the period of peace had secured a good footing in his district remained in his office until the violence of the KuUurkampf had spent itself.
His educational work was appreciated not only by the teachers and priests, but also by successive Protestant presidents of the district government. One might wonder why he was not promoted to a higher post which amongst other functions would have given him control over the training colleges of the province, a charge for which he was better fitted than most men ; but by the time that pro- motion was due the educational authorities in Prussia had become violently anti-Catholic, and they knew that Kell- ner would never lend himself to become a tool for the suppression of Catholic loyalty. It did not hurt his feelings that he was not advanced in rank and position, for all his life he had acted on the principle to remain at a post until he was called from it and not to wish for a larger sphere of activity and influence but to wait until it was offered him. But he felt keenly the harm that was done to Christian education by the forces of evil which allied themselves with the persecutors of the Catholic Church. He prevented as much harm as he could, he acted fearlessly on Catholic principles, but he could not prevent the hostile measures of superior authorities, e. g., the exclusion of Catholic priests from religious instruc- tion in schools and the appointment of anti-Catholic or even infidel instructors. We need hardly say how much it grieved him to witness all this and to see the number of parishes without priests increase year by year. We must, however, admire his tact and self-control that alone made the tenure of office during these years possible for him ; but he endured the constant pang and strain of that unhappy time for the good of Catholic education. His heart was in his work and his subjects revered and loved him. The circle of his friends grew year by year and his writings brought help and encouragement to
DocTOK LoRENz Kellner 693
Catholic teachers who had to bear the brunt of the hostile attack. In his earlier years he had written for them his Volhsscliulhunde, a systematic work of reference and advice covering the whole range of elementary school management. It has many rivals and is perhaps not pretentious enough to attract attention on the book- market, especially as it has not an original scheme of its own.
His other works on practical education, on the other hand, have attracted general attention because they are original and fresh, and therefore have no competitors. What Polack says of one of them, the Aphorismen, is true also of the Paedagogischen Mitteilungen and the posthu- mous Lose Blatter.
**I knew him first by his Aphorismen. My good luck brought this book into my hands on my first appointment as teacher. I read this kind of pedagogy with surprise and my delight grew from paragraph to paragraph ; they were so short and concise, every one a preface to a whole book. * * * To every question there was an answer, out of every error a finger-post, for every mistake a remedy, for discouragement consolation, for every doubt advice. It seemed to me as if I had been freed from the law of gravity. My profession appeared to me the great- est luck. I desire to live and to strive on those principles. This book was to be for me like the pillar of the cloud by daytime, the pillar of light at night. ' '
Whilst quoting these words of a Protestant inspector of schools we must not forget that thousands of Catholics have derived even greater benefits from the study of Kell- ner's works, and because he knew it he felt bound to con- tinue his literary work to the very end of his life. He insisted that Catholic education ought to be in no way inferior to its competitors, but rather that its results ought to surpass those of others, especially in the forma- tion of character.
He died a pious and happy death without showing any
694 The Catholic Educational Eeview
sign of fear. Why should he be afraid? He had worked for God, not for glory or for gain. He had seen evil days around him, but he also saw the good he and others had been able to do and he looked hopefully into the future. He writes towards the end of his life :
* * If there is anything which makes me hope good things from the future it is the fact that nowadays the priests devote themselves more than ever to the study of educa- tion both in its theoretical and its practical aspects, that in the true ecclesiastical spirit they take it not only into their hands but also into their heads, that building on the firm ground of positive faith and a thorough knowl- edge of human nature they may know how to combine progress in science with religious and moral education.'^
The last quotation shows that Kellner's name ought to be mentioned in the Catholic Educational Eeview, because it carries out the ideas of Kellner.
Lambekt Nolle^ 0. S. B.
Erdington Abbey, Birmingham, England.
THE EELATION OF THE SEMINAEY TO THE GENERAL EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM*
I have been requested to prepare a paper for this meet- ing of the Catholic Educational Association on **The Relation of the Seminary to the General Educational Problem. ' ' In these United States we Catholics have been wrestling with this great question from a dual motive, viz : The securing of the continuation of Christ's splendid mission among the children of men and the assuring of the permanency of our much loved and greatly appre- ciated republican institutions. For we realize that the two must go hand in hand. And in our struggle for the Christianizing and civilization of our fellow-citizens who can say we have not been terribly in earnest? No sacri- fice has seemed too great, no difficulty has proved too insurmountable, no perseverance has been found too try- ing in the grand and glorious struggle we have continued at great odds through all these years, until now our indomitable spirit of supernatural Faith and Christian enthusiasm has been crowned with the acknowledged suc- cess of our great system of Christian education in all its branches, from the humble parochial schools to the proud universities covering this fair land from one end of it to the other.
The Catholic Church needs no apology for its ever insistent demand for the Christian education of its chil- dren. The history of 2,000 years attests the Church's interest in things educational. Ever making the intellec- tual the handmaid of the supernatural, she has builded up, century by century, that most admirable system of Scholastic training which is the marvel of all thinking men. She has blazed the way down through the years
♦Read at the eighth annual meeting of the Catholic Educational Association, Cliicago, 1911.
696 The Catholic Educational Eeview
of pioneer endeavor, where others have been led to falter- ingly follow, until today she stands first and foremost in the ranks of educators, offering to the world the only education worthy of the name.
Education must advance as civilization develops and makes progress among the people. And with the im- mensely rich traditions of our Catholic history in the past, who shall deny us a still more glorious future of accomplishment 1
The particular point I am requested to develop in this paper is the relation of the seminary to our practical educational work in the parish school.
The intellectual and moral character of the pupil will rise no higher than the exemplar he finds in the teacher who guides his embryonic attempts to assimilate the mat- ter day by day provided for his mental food. In turn, the teacher is more or less dependent for successful work upon the encouragement and wisely guided counsels of the priest in charge of the local school energies. If he be well fitted for his all important task, capable of enter- ing into the great work entrusted to his care, equipped intellectually and pedagogically, the school is sure of accomplishing the splendid results of a thoroughly well organized institution. If, on the contrary, he be ill pre- pared by neglect of study or proper guidance along these lines during his seminary course, the school is bound to be recognized as but a makeshift, doing more harm to the cause of Christian education than if it did not exist. Too often, in the past, have the best efforts of the great Teach- ing Orders of these United States been hampered in their work because the priest, learned and zealous though he may have been, and willing to do his best, was unin- formed as to proper school principles by reason of this particular feature of the sacred ministry in these parts having been overlooked or neglected in his seminary training.
Eelation of the Seminary 697
I believe it to be a matter of paramount importance that some general system of pedagogy founded on the best methods now accepted by educators be insisted upon as a part of the seminary curriculum if we would go for- ward in this great work of Catholic education.
Although the pastor is supposed to be the guiding prin- ciple of the parish school activities, of necessity much of the parish school work must be entrusted to the care of his curates, especially in the large city parishes. The pastor generally has not the time or the inclination to instruct his younger assistants in the manner of his work among the school children. If the young priest has not learned the most effective and best adapted methods of school work in his preparation for the sacred ministry, his only alternative is to learn by experience as his pas- tor did before him, and experience is a stem teacher for both priest and pupil, often resulting in most disastrous results to both.
An objection may be raised that the present course of studies in our seminaries leaves but scant time for aught else. The curriculum of studies I admit, already demands strenuous application and hard study on the part of the candidate for Holy Orders ; but we are considering in this topic the better fitting of our young priests for taking up the great work of instruction and intellectual development which our parish schools are endeavoring to carry out for the honor and glory of God and the salvation of souls. Surely these motives must appeal in a very forceful man- ner even to the hard-worked professor and students of the seminary.
The knowledge of philosophy and theology and canon law and liturgy and Scripture and chant are rightly insisted upon as a sine qua non in the candidate for the sacred priesthood. But in our rather singular and com- plex relation of pastor and people in this republic, in the peculiar position we find ourselves in regard to school
698 The Catholic Educational Eeview
conditions, I venture to suggest that a practical way of assuring the very highest success of our splendid system of Catholic schools, would be to give at least some gen- eral instruction during the seminary course in pedagogy and the manner of successfully managing a parochial school. Under present conditions, this is one of the most important features of our priestly work among the peo- ple. For we must never forget that these little ones under our care today are to be the faithful of God's church tomorrow and on the manner in which we do our duty towards them in the school physically, intellectually and morally will depend the Church of the future.
In the limits and scope of this paper it would be pre- sumptuous in me to offer more than a suggestion as to the best means of remedying an admitted weakness in our school system. I have but endeavored to put before this convention the present need of help from the seminary for more successful work in our parish school, the need as I see it after an experience of nearly thirty years in parish school work. If I shall have succeeded in impress- ing upon the good directors of our seminaries the neces- sity of arousing a holy enthusiasm among the young levites under them and a generous spirit of sacrifice for this greatest work of the American Church among us — the successful parish school — I shall be happy in having prompted some thought leading up to the higher efficiency of our Catholic educational system.
Fkancis J. Van Antwerp.
Detroit, Mich.
EDUCATION IN SOUTH AMERICA
During the colonial period in Iberian- America, that is, in the Spanish and Portuguese possessions on this side of the Atlantic, religion always proceeded hand in hand with exploration, colonization, and civilization. State and Church were intimately united, though their mutual rela- tions were not always peaceful, as the correspondence of the times permits us to discover. However, the ecclesias- tical spirit pervaded everything, and it is impossible for the student of history to lose sight of the Church. She accompanied the rough soldier into the wilderness, as she had followed the hardy mariner across the seas. She strove to curb their passions, to prevent their cruelties and injustices and to save their souls. If the natives of America seemed to be the first objects of her solicitude, she did not forget the conquistador es and their children. From the beginning she made education her foremost duty. Schools were established for the Indian wherever the Spaniard went, and some famous colleges arose, like that of Santa Cruz in Mexico, founded by the Francis- cans, and the large Jesuit college, Colegio del Principe in Lima, which owed its origin to the poet- viceroy. Prince of Esquilache, descendant of St. Francis Borgia. Colleges like that of El Eosario at Bogota, were, in course of time, established for the Spaniards, and centers of higher edu- cation, like the Universities of Lima, Mexico, Quito, Bogota, and the Jesuit College of Tucuman, spread their light throughout Spanish America. While in Brazil, too, such educators as the Jesuits were doing a noble work, no university, strange to say, seems ever to have been founded in the Portuguese dominions.
Education during the colonial period was entirely in
700 The Catholic Educational KevieW
the hands of the Church, though the larger institutions were founded by royal charter. The religious orders, especially the Dominicans, Augustinians, Franciscans, and Jesuits, were prominent in the work of education, the Jesuits being, from the latter part of the sixteenth century to the end of the eighteenth, the great educators of Spanish America. The expulsion of the Jesuits was a severe blow to educational work in colonial America. Their colleges were suppressed, or they exchanged mas- ters, while their splendid libraries and collections of manuscripts were scattered.
But the end of Spain's rule on the American continent was nigh ; for it did not long survive the actions of Pom- bal and Aranda. "With the independence of the colonies a new era began in education. The state took charge of it generally, while the old orders began that decline from which they have only begun to recover in recent years. Although Church and state remained united, the influence of the former had waned, and it too often had to encounter a marked antagonism on the part of the latter. The principles of eighteenth century philos- ophy had done their work too well, and a party arose, known as liberal, which, in its extreme form, the radical, is inimical to revealed religion, and, consequently, to religious education. Hence the battle of the future, in Spanish America as elsewhere, must be fought in the arena of education.
To understand well the state of affairs in South Amer- ica it is necessary to treat separately of the different countries, as it is impossible to lay down any general statement that would hold good for all the republics. I shall only write of those countries with which it was pos- sible for me to enter into personal contact, namely, Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Panama.
Education in South America 701
BRAZIL
Since the days of the empire, Church and State have been separated in Brazil, and, consequently, there is a secular and there is a religious field entirely distinct from each other. There can be no doubt that, since the days of the Braganzas, Brazil has made rapid strides, while religion has been immensely improved. Where there were formerly less than ten bishops there are now about forty, while the general standard of the clergy has been raised, although vocations to the priesthood are few. It stands to reason that Catholic education has experienced the same influences for good.
My stay in Brazil was too brief to form a proper idea of the condition of education, either secular or religious, especially in its primary departments. The only primary schools I was able to visit were in the seaport town of Santos, and they were primitive indeed. One of these was a public school. A wretched little house served for the purpose, while a score or more of children occupied two small rooms on the ground floor. A delightful air of cour- tesy and amiability on the part of teachers and pupils made up, however, for the lack of elegance and comfort. One of the three schools visited, apparently the best of the three, was German. Although the children were absent, the general appearance of neatness and cleanli- ness made quite a favorable impression. I may remark, in passing, that German influence is very pronounced in Southern Brazil.
As far as personal observation is concerned, I was more fortunate in regard to secondary and higher education. Brazil may not boast of a university, though she pos- sesses separate faculties, such as that of medicine in Bahia, in the old Jesuit College. This school of medicine enjoys quite a favorable reputation.
In Catholic higher education for boys, the Benedictines and the Jesuits stand foremost. The former are made
702 The Catholic Educational Eeview
up of various nationalities, Germans being especially numerous; for the old Brazilian congregation has long since gone to pieces. The College of S. Bento at Rio de Janeiro is connected with the picturesque old abbey over- looking the harbor. It is a military college. Here, as in other similar institutions, army officers are detailed to drill the boys, and sixty days each year, spent in exercises, take the place of military service.
A no less flourishing college is one in the city of S. Paulo, the educational center of Brazil. The best families send their children to this college, which compares well with similar institutions the world over. It is attached to the Benedictine abbey, of which the head, heart, and soul is the energetic abbot, Dom Miguel Kruse, who, before entering the Order, was a secular priest in the United States.
Besides the gymnasium, or college proper, there is here, also, a faculty of philosophy and letters, in which higher studies are pursued, in accordance with modern methods. It is the ambition of the abbot to increase the efficiency of the institution, and he even dreams of the possibility of a university.
Another well-known educational center in S. Paulo, but under Protestant auspices, is the Mackenzie College, endowed by funds given in memory of John T. Mackenzie, of New York. Originally an adjunct to the Presbyterian mission, it is now independent, and supposedly nonsecta- rian ; for in compliance with the wish of Brazilian parents religion is excluded from this and and some other Protes- tant institutions. The college is conducted on American models, and it has exercised a considerable amount of American influence.
UKUGUAY
There is, probably, more hostility to the Church in Uru- guay than in most other countries in South America,
EDucATio:fr in South Ameeioa 703
although Church and State are united, and the bishop and seminary receive a subvention from the government. The Jesuit Fathers have charge of the seminary, but here, as in other countries of South America, there are few voca- tions to the priesthood. The public schools are neutral, and the teaching of religion is excluded, while the state university is said to be rationalistic in its tendencies.
AEGENTINA
This young country is wonderful in its developments, and its capital, Buenos Aires, justly counts as one of the great cities of the world. In point of population it ranks fourth in the Western Hemisphere. Education in Argen- tina has kept pace with the general progress of the repub- lic, and public schools are found everywhere, while there is no lack of private institutions of learning. Primary instruction is obligatory, and, on the part of the govern- ment, gratuitous. There are also numerous public col- leges for secondary education, under the auspices of the government, while higher learning has its seat in several universities, those of Buenos Aires, Cordoba and La Plata being the most prominent.
The University of La Plata, hardly seven years old, is truly wonderful, from architectural, artistic and educa- tional standpoints. With its two thousand students, its splendid group of buildings, its valuable museum, and its astronomical observatory, it deserves to rank with the important universities of the world in a city of almost 100,000 population which is scarcely more than a quarter of a century old, and the founder of which is still living. La Plata with its university is a miniature and a copy of the entire marvelous republic, the remarkable progress of which must be attributed to the liberal and enlight- ened policy of the government which has encouraged for- eign immigration and foreign capital.
704 The Catholic Educational Review
Unfortunately, however, religion finds no part in the curriculum of Argentine state education, and much depends on the personal character of teachers and profes- sors. While the atmosphere of Cordoba, with its ven- erable university, seems to be entirely Catholic, that of young La Plata is said to be tinged with rationalism.
Religion is not permitted to enter within the walls of the public schools as such, though the clergyman is allowed to instruct the children in catechism after school hours. Any one at all acquainted with the fundamental principles of education must see how inadequate such teaching is to lay the foundations of sound morality.
And yet, the government of Argentina today is not hostile to the Church, and the vast bulk of the population is Catholic, at least in name. And what is the Church doing to counteract the evil influences that surround her children? In the Church, as well as in the country at large, signs of increased activity are visible. It is quite natural that, depending so completely on the government, the Church in colonial times had fallen into somewhat of a routine. But, through friction with other nations, and by the necessities of the times, there is an awakening, although very much remains to be desired.
The parochial school system, as we understand it, is, in Argentina, still in its infancy. Last year there were only four parochial schools, strictly speaking, in the city of Buenos Aires, while about twenty-two existed in other portions of the republic. Still the extent of Catholic education must not be gauged by the number of parochial schools, for there is an abundance of Catholic educational institutions, many of them gratuitous, all over the coun- try, some under private auspices, others more or less under the influence of the Church. In the city of Buenos Aires, with its 1,200,000 population, there are fifty-two Catholic schools for boys and about ninety-one for girls.
Education in South Ameeioa 705
A large proportion of these consists of colleges, or acade- mies in which tuition is paid. Some are conducted by the members of religious orders and congregations, such as the Jesuits, Christian Brothers, Ladies of the Sacred Heart, the Salesian Fathers, the Dominicans, the Irish Sisters of Mercy, the Sisters of the Sainte Union, the Visitation Nuns and others. To a number of these paid schools gratuitous schools are also attached. In Buenos Aires alone, education can be obtained free under the auspices of the Church in about sixty schools at least, not to speak of those connected with paid institutions. A considerable number of these belong to asylums, which are quite numerous. Similar means of education are found in the other dioceses of the republic in proportion to the population.
A considerable number of schools in Argentina is main- tained by the ''Circulo de Ohreros/' a society of working- men, established by the Redemptorist, Father Grote, for the benefit of the working classes. It will thus be seen, that although Catholic educational facilities are, perhaps, not in keeping with the seven millions of Argentina's population, the Church is working hard in the right direction.
Catholic higher education is still in its infancy. With the exception of La Plata, of which the students are educated elsewhere, and the small diocese of Santiago del Estero, all the dioceses of Argentina have their seminary for the priesthood, that of Buenos Aires being in charge of the Jesuits. The college of the ^^ Salvador'' in Buenos Aires, under the direction of the Fathers of the Society, is one of the most important colleges of the land. During my sojourn in Buenos Aires a Spanish Catholic Inter- national Congress of Education, opened in this college, was one of the features of the great independence cele- brations. There is a Catholic university in Buenos Aires,
706 The Catholic Educational Eeview
but it is still incipient and far from being in keeping with a country like Argentina. It has faculties of law and social science, and it is under the direction of Monsignor Luis Duprat.
As a valuable adjunct to the work of Catholic educa- tion must be mentioned several societies laboring for its promotion. To these belong the Literary Academy of La Plata, composed of the San Salvador alumni, the Alfa y Omega, which has as its object the diffusion of good literature, the Association of the Good Press, with a simi- lar object, the Central Committee of the Ladies for the Seminary, the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, the League of Catholic Instruction, and others. The last named strives to defend Catholic education, and to obtain religious instruction in the schools, subject to the state.
chile
Of all the countries of South America, Chile has, prob- ably, been most energetic, in proportion to its means and population, in promoting the cause of education. Though not compulsory, instruction in Chile is imparted gratui- tously by the state. At present there are about 2,275 elementary schools with over 4,000 teachers, and 172,000 pupils. Beside these the government subsidizes 118 pri- vate elementary schools. Primary schools exist in cities, towns, villages, and even hamlets of only 300 inhabitants. The society of the Proletariate School endeavors further to extend the benefits of education to the very poor.
Secondary instruction is imparted in the National Institute of Santiago, which is a preparatory school for the university. It was founded in 1813. There are also lyceums or colleges in every town of importance.
Chile has devoted great attention to pedagogy, with a large number of normal schools, the first of which was founded by President Manuel Montt. For a long time the German pedagogic system prevailed entirely; but,
Education in South America 707
some years ago, the government engaged the service of two ladies, Catholics, to introduce the American system. These ladies. Miss Agnes Brown, a graduate of Ann Arbor, and Miss Caroline Burson, of St. Mary's, Indiana, have been quite successful.
The state university of Chile has been developed from that of colonial times, the University of San Felipe. There exists, also, an institution, known as the University of Chile, founded in 1843, on the model of the College de France, the object of which is to centralize and direct the studies of the republic. It is divided into a number of faculties, including theology.
Besides these general educational institutions, Chile is also rich in special schools, in which mining, agriculture, industry and commerce are taught. Prominent among these is the Quint a Normal, situated, with its various departments, in a beautiful park in Santiago. Chile pos- sesses, also, its schools of music and the fine arts, and an institute for the deaf, dumb and blind.
Although here, as elsewhere in Latin countries, there is a party inimical to the interests of religion, it has not succeeded in banishing it from the schools. Some of the larger institutions, like the normal schools, have a chap- lain whose duty it is to impart religious instruction to the children. However, in spite of all this, much damage may be effected by anti-religious teachers.
In 1900 the late Archbishop Casanova wrote in one of his admirable pastorals, which have been published in a neat volume by Herder in Freiburg :
**It is true that the law orders that religion shall be taught in the schools, but, thus far, the results have not been satisfactory. * * *
*^With what right is it permitted among us, that per- sons occupy professorial chairs, and direct public schools, who boast of their intention to wrest the Faith from the people, and corrupt youth by education T'
708 The Catholic Educational Eeview
He, consequently, urges that, according to the decrees of the Latin American Council, held in Eome in 1899, parochial schools be established, at least one for each parish.
Some time before, in 1870, the Society of Catholic Schools of St. Thomas Aquinas had been founded in San- tiago, with the object of establishing education upon a religious basis. Last year the Society had twelve schools in operation, besides a night school for adults. The dio- cese of Santiago possesses, also, its normal school for teachers. The ^^Centro Cristiano/^ the diocesan council for primary instruction, directs education in the same diocese.
Diocesan seminaries for the education of candidates for the priesthood exist throughout the republic, that of Santiago being the largest in America, excepting, prob- ably, the Seminary of Montreal.
The Catholic University was founded in Santiago by Archbishop Casanova in 1886. It is now a flourishing institution, with faculties of law, mathematics, agricul- ture, industry, civil engineering, and so forth, the faculty of theology being located in the seminary.
PERU'
The work of education in Peru is progressing, in spite of difficulties, and American influence is quite marked. The present educational system is undergoing a process of organization under the direction of an American, and American teachers, irrespective of their religion, are employed. Although religion enters into the curriculum, there is a tendency in some quarters to naturalize it, and to substitute so-called moral instruction for supernatural doctrine. The venerable university of St. Mark, the old- est in America, the cradle of which was in the Dominican Monastery of Lima, still exists. It calls itself to this day
Education in South America 709
the ** Pontifical University/* as it was founded by Papal brief, but its founders would hardly recognize it now. Occupying one of the old Jesuit houses, its influence is said to be unfavorable to religion. The youth of the coun- try have hardly any means to enjoy higher education under Catholic auspices.
There are some Catholic colleges for boys and girls, conducted by the Jesuits, the Fathers of Picpus, the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, ^nd others, but these are scarcely adequate. The normal school in Lima is under the direction of the Ladies of the Sacred Heart, in a part of the old Jesuit college known as the ''Colegio del Principe/^
The native clergy in Peru, in steadily diminishing num- bers, have all they can do in the work of the ministry, while those that come from the seminary in Lima, under the direction of the Spanish Fathers of Archbishop Clavel, of Santiago de Cuba, are few indeed. The only hope of Catholic education in Peru seems to lie in impor- tations from abroad.
COLOMBIA
From Colonial times down, Santa Fe de Bogota, the capital of Colombia, has been a literary center. It has been called the *^ Athens of South America,'' and its col- lege of the Holy Eosary was, at one time, justly famous.
Colombia has witnessed the same struggle between the religious and the purely secular tendencies that have characterized the history of modern education in every country of the globe. Under President Mosquera the latter gained a signal victory, with the expulsion of the Jesuits, and other religious orders, and the complete secularization of education. But there has been a reac- tion, Colombia has retraced its steps, and, today, it acknowledges the importance of uniting secular with religious instruction.
710 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Higher education is given in the universities of Bogota, Popayan, Medellin, and Cartagena. The venerable col- lege, ^^El EosariOj" still continues under the patronage of the government, while secondary education may be obtained in a number of colleges throughout the land.
Primary education, while gratuitous, is not obligatory. There are about two thousand public schools in the repub- lic which, however, do not meet the demands. Leaving a number of private schools out of consideration, I find that, in 1906, the highest number of children receiving public education was fifteen per cent, notably in the department of Caldas, while the average throughout the country was less than ^yq per cent.
PANAMA
I can say but little of education in this small republic which is of the greatest interest for the outside world, owing to the canal that our government is constructing. Education here appears to be somewhat in an incipient stage, although the Panama government is erecting a university which, to judge from the building, is to be quite important. There is a ministry of public instruction, but the prevailing sentiment seems to be hostile to religion. Until recently the Christian Brothers conducted the nor- mal school, but it has been taken away from them.
The only religious orders I know in this republic devoted to the work of education are the Christian Broth- ers, and the Sisters of Charity. While Americans have been pouring into Panama, little has been done by Catho- lics here to promote the cause of religion or education in that country.
Chaeles Wakren Curriee.
THE CONDUCT OF THE TEACHER IN THE CLASS
ROOM
Wlien King Lear asked old Kent why he wished to be in his service he answered: *^ Because you have that in your face which I would fain call Master. ' ' In the light of this incident we get a glimpse of human nature that has a strong bearing on our subject. What was it Kent saw? It was the expression in appearance and conduct of a soul within. In other words it was the character of the man visible in his countenance that captivated Kent and drew from him a willing service. We are very much the same and children are not different. Most men are willing to follow a leader when they see that he is properly quali- fied. Most children are willing to be governed when they see that the teacher is able to govern and to teach. These qualifications express themselves in external conduct. Life is at least three-fourths conduct. The source of con- duct is character.
The two elements that form the foundation of the teach- er 's conduct are character and knowledge. The former is an essential without which nothing can be done toward the end for which Christian education was instituted ; the latter gives the strength, ease, assurance and ability that are necessary and gratifying to teacher and pupil. Like begets like. It is the character of the teacher that begets character in the pupil, and the light of knowledge glowing in the soul of the teacher cannot but enlighten the dark- ened mind of the untaught child.
"Thou must be true thyself If thou the truth wouldst teach; Thy own soul must overflow If thou another soul wouldst reach."
Without these the teacher may be able to transfer some
712 The Catholic Educational Eeview
dry timber to the attic of the children's minds but that is not the end of Christian education.
One cannot give what she does not possess : The plan must be in the mind of the architect; the image, in the mind of the sculptor; the song, in the heart of the poet; the ideal, in the mind of the teacher, or there will be failure in the execution. The teacher must be even more than she desires her pupils to become. The water in the fountain must exceed its capacity or there will not be an overflow. One of the best and most experienced teachers in the State of New York was noted for his careful prepa- ration of every lesson before entering the class room. Being asked why he did so, for his ability was well known, he replied: *^I would rather see my pupils drink from a running stream than from a stagnant pool.'' Spalding says, '^Not what a teacher says, but what he is, and does, draws the young brood after him. ' '
We cannot enter into a discussion of the fundamental laws of mental development here; it is no longer neces- sary to prove their existence and value, but it is well to note how the character of the teacher as expressed in her conduct affects the life of the pupils through the lat- ter's instinctive tendency to imitate the words, actions, manners and other characteristics of those with whom they associate. In the earlier years of the child's life he relies on his parents for the models of his imitative activi- ties, but on entering school, the teacher supplements the parents and becomes a new center on which the child orientates his inclinations to reproduce in himself and his actions what he perceives in others. ^'From the standpoint of society a good deal, if not all, of what the child does, is easily traced to some copy set by environ- mental conditions. He is constantly copying the activi- ties, customs, motions, etc. that surround him * * * With the child the emphasis is not on the copying of a certain act, but on the attainment of a certain experience
Conduct of Teacher in the Class Eoom 713
that comes through the copying or imitating. * * * In other words, to the child's consciousness the signifi- cance of the act is not in it as an imitation, but in that it helps define a new experience that is felt as desirable/' (King, Psychology of Child Development, pp. 119-20.) The same truth is confirmed by Professor Baldwin who says, *^Was there ever a group of school children who did not leave the real school and make a play school? * * * rpj^^ point is this : The child 's personality grows, growth is always by action; he clothes upon himself the scenes of his life and acts them out ; so he grows by what he is, what he understands, and what he is able to per- form. (Mental Development in the Child and Eace, p. 361.)
Quoting Dr. Shields (The Psychology of Education, p. 296-297), we read: *^ Impelled by the instinct to imitate, the child appropriates the actions and the attitudes of the people of his environment. The hidden springs of these actions and attitudes at first in no way concern him. Through the performance of the action, however, or through the assumption of the attitude, he is gradually led into a dim understanding of the inner meaning, and as the understanding grows upon him, so does his keen- ness in the observation of the details in his model that at first escaped his notice. From the realization of these details in his own actions he gains a still deeper insight into the cognitive processes that underlie the actions of the chosen model.'' If the quotations from these authori- ties are true — and who will doubt them? the application to our subject is too evident to need further emphasis.
Almost constantly the eye of the pupil is receiving impressions and instantly communicating them to the soul where they contribute to the growth of his mind and character. What about the impressions made in unguarded moments 1 Are they always desirable ? These
-/
714 The Catholic Educational Eeview
will the more surely be a revelation of the teacher's char- acter as in such moments one wears no disguises. Hence the necessity of being what one seems, in dealing with children; for they are gifted in discerning the real from the assumed.
I may be pardoned for quoting at length from W. G Jordan's paper, ^^The Power of Personal Influence'' as it has a close bearing on this phase of our subject — Character as a source of conduct. He writes ^^The only responsibility that a man cannot evade in this life is the one he thinks of least, — his personal influence. Man's conscious influence, when he is on dress-parade, when he is posing to impress those around him, — is wonderfully small. But his unconscious influence, the silent, subtle radiation of his personality, the effect of his words and acts, the trifles he never considers, — is tremendous. * * * Into the hands of every individual is given a marvelous power for good or for evil, — the silent, uncon- scious, unseen influence of his life. This is simply the constant radiation of what a man really is, not what he pretends to be. Every man is radiating sympathy or sorrow or morbidness or cynicism or happiness or hope or any of a hundred qualities.
There are men and women whose presence seems to radiate sunshine, cheer and optimism. You feel calmed and restored in a moment to new and stronger faith in humanity. There are those who focus in an instant all your latent distrust, morbidness and rebellion against life. Without knowing why, you chafe and fret in their presence. You lose your bearings on life and its prob- lems. Your moral compass is disturbed and unsatisfac- tory. It is made untrue in an instant, as the magnetic needle of a ship is deflected when it passes near great mountains of iron ore.
There are men who float down the stream of life like
Conduct of Teachee; in the Class Room 715
icebergs, — cold, reserved, unapproachable and self-con- tained. In their presence you involuntarily draw your wraps closer around you, as you wonder who left the door open. These refrigerated human beings have a most depressing influence on all those who fall under the spell of their radiated chilliness. But there are other natures, warm, helpful, genial, who are like the Gulf Stream, following their own course, flowing undaunted and undis- mayed in the ocean of colder waters. Their presence brings warmth and life and a glow of sunshine, the joyous, stimulating breath of spring.
There are men who are like malarious swamps, — pois- onous, depressing and weakening by their very presence. They make heavy, oppressive and gloomy the atmosphere of their own home; the sound of children's play is stilled, the ripples of laughter are frozen in their presence. They go through life as if each day were a new big funeral, and they were chief mourners. There are others like the ocean; they are constantly bracing, stimulating, giving new draughts of tonic, life and strength by their presence. There are men who are insincere in heart, and that insin- cerity is radiated by their presence. They have a won- drous interest in your welfare, — when they need you. They put on a ^^ property'' smile so suddenly when it serves their purpose, that it seems the smile must be con- nected with some electric button concealed in their clothes. But they never play their part absolutely true, the mask will slip down sometimes; their cleverness cannot teach their eyes to look the look of sterling honesty; they may deceive some people, but they cannot deceive all. There is a subtle power of revelation which makes us say: 'Well, I don't know how it is, but I know that man is not honest. '
Man cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, this constantly weakening or strength- ening of others. He cannot evade the responsibility by
716 The Catholic Educational Review
saying it is an unconscious influence. He can select the qualities that he will permit to be radiated. He can culti- vate sweetness, calmness, trust, generosity, truth, justice, loyalty, nobility, — and make them vitally active in his character, — and by these qualities he will constantly affect the world. =* * * To make our influence felt we must live our faith, we must practice what we believe. It is useless for a mother to try to teach gentleness to her children when she herself is cross and irritable. The child who is told to be truthful and who hears a parent lie cleverly to escape some little social unpleasantness is not going to cling very closely to truth. The parent's words say, ^ don't lie,' the influence of the parent's life says, ^do lie.' No individual is so insignificant as to be with- out influence. We should be not merely an influence, — we should be an inspiration. By our very presence we should be a tower of strength to the hungry souls about us. ' ' Here again the application is obvious.
Time is required — and not a little of it either — to make anything permanent in the formation of character. Most people will believe it if they are sincere with themselves and have good memories ; it cannot be made in a factory like soap, pins and shoestrings — millions at a time with no variations. Each child that comes to us is a new problem and should be studied and solved in the light of what faith teaches us is the value of an immortal soul. No fixed rules can be given, for in the realm of souls no two are alike, nor have they similar needs.
There is time to touch on only a few of those virtues which the teacher should practice and these should be an evidence to the pupils that her life's work is modeled on that of the world's great teacher — Christ. Then and then only may she hope to see the virtues taught by Him reflected in the lives of her young charges. As the character of Christ was an embodiment of all virtues so should the teacher's endeavor be to imitate Him and thus
Conduct of Teacher in the Class Eoom 717
become a safe model for her pupils. Patience is much needed. And why not be patient with the children? Barrie says, ^'The life of every man and woman is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another ; and the humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it. ' * Children are not different. Genuineness in the teacher goes far toward developing the same trait in pupils. T. B. 0 'Hara writes: *^In all superior people, there is a directness, a lack of evasion and subterfuge, an inherent candor and simplicity. From such as these, with the hearts of little children, truth sounds more true because all smallnesses and obstructions have been lived down or trained away. ' ' Meekness and humility are the virtues our Master would have us practice : ^ ' Learn of Me. ' ^ In teaching the world this lesson He offers himself as the model we should copy. In every work done by man the end is reached by means appropriate to the end and in harmony with the dignity of the act. In her endeavor to accomplish the end of her work, the teacher will find that nothing will be of greater importance than the exercise of tact. The study of litera- ture will furnish many illustrations worth noting. In George Eliot's great novel we find Savonarola's dealings with Eomola worthy of attention. He possesses the art of suggesting effectively. He has that quiet power of taking it for granted that he will be obeyed. ^^You are fleeing in disguise'' means you are a hypocrite, liar, coward, but he does not use these words. There is no harshness in his tone ; it is the quiet statement of the truth which arouses no antagonism. He does not hurry her ; he is patient but firm. In the same novel we find Dino 's message to Eomola failed for want of tact; it was not given in the proper solvent. Eomola could see nothing in his conduct but inhumanity to his family and that repelled her. ** Oft- times our very virtues slay our virtues. ' ' Often an other- wise good teacher fails in her most cherished efforts
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because in an unguarded moment she lets a word fall that casts a reflection on the family, home or nationality of the child. The art of pleasing should be cultivated. We find this in a high degree in Tito Melema; he always knows what to say and do. We may have well-nigh unbounded influence on a person if we can get near enough to win his confidence. Tito has vices that become his ruin, but we need not dwell on them. A teacher sur- rounded by a barrier of ice, cold, stiff and formal does not compare well with the world's model Teacher who said, ** Suffer little children to come unto me.'' To be sure, a teacher should possess a certain amount of dignity but if she is and has all that should qualify her, she will not be obliged to demand respect, her very personality will command it.
Again humility and self-sacrifice must not be over- looked. There will be conflicts at times even in the best regulated schools ; in those moments when the thought of our own dignity and all that is our due in this or that position arises, we enter a world of darkness and doubt and the question arises : What are we going to do about it? Shall the child be expelled that better order may be maintained ; that we may have less trouble ; that none may differ from us; shall we send him adrift knowing that there is no influence to save him in his home or on the streets where he will spend much of his time? At times the longer we reflect the darker and deeper grow the valleys, the more threatening the ravines, the more lower- ing the clouds, but high above all on a hill, the hill of Calvary, we see the value set on, and the price paid for human souls, a voice says, ** Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. ' ' Here is the answer. There are times when the cold steel of the law justifies us and we can turn a child away without violating duty in its ethical sense, but are we doing all that can be done if we justify ourselves in this way? This is ideal, and Halpin
Conduct op Teacher in the Class Eoom 719
says (Christian Pedagogy, p. 122): ''Respect for ideals is fast waning, and everything that savors of lofty aspira- tion is called quixotic. And Father Ryan says :
"In the world each Ideal, That shines like a star on life's wave. Is wrecked on the shores of the Real, And sleeps like a dream in the grave."
Even though respect is passing; even though it is wrecked on the shores of the Real, would we be better without it? Should we have no guiding star on high? The trial may cost you sorrow. Savonarola urges ( Romola ) : ' ' Make your sorrow an offering ; and when the fire of divine charity burns within you, and you behold the need of your fellow-mortals by that flame you will not call the offering great.'' In ''The Light of the Vision'' (Ave Maria) by Christian Reid see what Mrs. Raynor did for the salvation of the soul of a man she disliked and who had been little less than a brute to her She was bound by no law — her confessor assured her of that — still she made the sacrifice and the result was one of those that make the angels rejoice. If she had refused, what a tragedy might have been. Here again the application needs no comment.
On the other hand the affection and sympathy exercised toward the children should not be of such a nature as to spoil them or make weaklings of them. Foolish fondness that pampers, develops selfishness and sentimentality and hence are created such characters as Tito Melema, and "The Sentimentalist" of whom Rev. Hugh Benson has written. Anna Payson Call has a good chapter on this in "Power Through Repose."
If any one thinks that the conduct of the teacher in the class room does not affect the pupil's welfare, provided she teaches the subjects required by the course of study in her school let her follow Dodd Weaver in the ' ' Evolution of Dodd" and see him as he passes from teacher to
720 The Catholic Educational Eeview
teacher on his downward career helped only by Amy Kelly and finally saved by Mr. Bright. In it you can see the truth of the poet's words :
"No change in childhood's early day, No storm that raged, no thought that ran But leaves its trace upon the clay That slowly hardens into man."
Dodd's first teacher was Miss Stone; her name was significant. She was beautiful, trained in a normal, but was soulless, artificial, possessed no originality and wore an everlasting smile. Dodd learned to hate school — that was all. Dodd's next teacher was Amos Waughhops (Wops). He had no education, but he could *^argy'' — and got the school in '^Deestricf No. 4. Amos had a grudge against Dodd's father and to satisfy it began with Dodd who bore the slings and arrows with a good deal of fortitude and seemed to avoid the clash, but one day matters came to a climax — Dodd left school and resolved never to return. After some time Dodd was induced to give school another trial. This time Amy Kelly taught him. Amy was not so well trained as Miss Stone, but she was not afraid of work, she had good sense and used it freely ; she was a girl of resources. Before the first day was over the evolution in Dodd's soul was a measurable quantity. Dodd's next teacher was Miss Spinacher. She had a hobby of keeping her pupils per- petually face front, and of having them sit up straight all the time, with folded arms, so that the school had the appearance of a deal board stuck full of stiff pegs, all in rows. Dodd did not do well under such a teacher. Who could? Under Mr. Sliman, Dodd's next teacher, Dodd learned much of the wisdom of the world. Before long he could look Mr. Sliman squarely in the eye and say ^* perfect^' even when he had whispered all day. Mr. Sliman wanted a good record to show visitors. Then Dodd went to Mr. Sharp. From seeing him manipulate
Conduct of Teacher in the Class Room 721
the *' attendance'' record Dodd learned that there were two records— a real one and a ''show'' one. The latter was the foundation of much of Mr. Sharp's glory; it was the one the School Board saw ! Dodd saw it, too, and, in the words of the author, W. H. Smith, ''Mr. Sharp wat- ered what Mr. Sliman planted," and Dodd's unformed character suffered the effect. Then Dodd went to Miss Slack and Miss Trotter; then to Mr. Skimhole, later to Mr. Loosely, Mr. Rattler, Striker, Bluffer and Smiley; all of these — and their names are indicative of their con- duct— had a hand in forming Dodd's character. Then Dodd went to Mrs. Highton who was poor but proud ; she taught school because she had to do something; she hated her pupils and they returned the compliment with interest. She resorted to all kinds of punishments. There was rebellion of which Dodd seemed to be the leader ; and Mrs. Highton decided to have him suspended. He was. It was during winter when skating was good ; it hurt him awfully to be suspended at such a time. He returned at the end of the suspension, was suspended again and finally expelled. Mrs. Highton drew her salary of $55 a month just the same. Dodd was now a stout, awkward boy, reckless and defiant. There are more like him. Who will extend to them a helping hand?
At the age of seventeen Dodd was a swaggering, pro- fane, vulgar fellow who ate his meals at home and slept there, but further than that lived apart from his parents who every day regretted that he had ever been born. His father feared him ; he was the terror of his brothers and sisters. There seemed no hope for him. Finally Dodd went to school again; his career in Mr. Bright 's school is well worth reading but it is too long to relate here. Through almost infinite patience but with great firmness, hard work and relentless skill ; with tact, courage and per- severance Mr. Bright succeeded in undoing the evil work done by his former teachers — finally succeeded in leading
722 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Dodd to make a respectable man of himself. Dodd is only a type — and the teachers are types — ^happily now dis- appearing. Compare Dodd under the leadership of Amy Kelly and Mr. Bright on one hand, and the Messrs. Sli- man, Sharp and the rest of them on the other before pro- nouncing on the importance of the conduct of the teacher in the classroom.
SiSTEB M. Generose. July 13, 11.
THE SCHOOL SISTERS OF NOTRE DAME IN AMERICA
The Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame is a community of Sisters who devote themselves mainly to the education of youth in the parochial schools. This Congregation was founded in the early part of the seven- teenth century by St. Peter Fourier, regular canon of the Order of St. Augustine.
The Order spread rapidly and Mother Alexia, the first superioress, saw it extend over France before her holy death, which occurred in January, 1622. It shared the fate, however, of other religious orders during the hor- rors of the revolution; its houses were either destroyed or confiscated and the community was disbanded. In 1833, the Order was re-established in Europe, and four- teen years after its re-establishment the Redemptorist Fathers obtained permission from the Rt. Rev. Michael O'Connor, the first bishop of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to secure School Sisters of Notre Dame for St. Mary's, Elk County, Pennsylvania.
In July, 1847, the first colony of School Sisters arrived in New York. Among the Sisters who composed the little band that landed on the shores of the New World on that memorable July day was Mother Caroline, of sainted memory. This holy religious taught the school at St. Mary's, and was, therefore, the first School Sister to take charge of an American school. The Sisters remained at St. Mary's but a short time, as they were called to Baltimore, Maryland, in 1847, where a permanent foun- dation was laid, which is the present seat of the Mother- house of the eastern province.
In 1850 the first and chief Motherhouse of the order in this country was established in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
724 The Catholic Educational Eeview
and Mother Mary Caroline was appointed Superior of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in America. How poor, helpless, and insignificant does she not appear when in 1850 she arrives in Milwaukee with her little band and settles on the bleak hill, with its wide outlook over the waters of Lake Michigan. What had she, but a clear mind, a brave heart, a pure conscience and implicit trust in God? But the great wonder workers of days apos- tolic have been no better equipped; she began to labor and to suffer, and in a few years a convent arose on the brow of St. Mary's Hill to which thousands of tender, loving souls continue to flock, like birds that turn from wintry climes to seek fairer lands. For forty years this generous and heroic soul labored in the cause of Christian education, making the Congregation of Notre Dame cos- mopolitan in its kind and a stronghold of educational power.
In its ranks are daughters of America, Germany, Ireland, England, Scotland, France, Poland, Bohemia, Holland, Italy and Spain, all animated by the same apos- tolic spirit, by which they become *^all to all.'' Accord- ing to the latest statistics the School Sisters of Notre Dame number 3,500 Sisters distributed among 256 mis- sion houses in eighteen States and Canada, teaching more than 100,000 pupils. Of this number 92,000 attend their parochial schools, 5,000 their academies and other institu- tions of higher education, while 2,347 orphans find house and home and parental care at their hands.
The parable of the mustard seed has rarely been more beautifully illustrated than in the rapid growth of the Congregation of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. For humble as had been the beginning of this great teaching order beyond the sea, it soon became apparent that Provi- dence had assigned to it a special work, not merely in the Old but also in the New World, where the current of immigration and the consequent, rapid development of
School Sistebs of Notre Dame 725
the American Republic, especially in the Northwest, became a chief factor in the vast extension of this relig- ious organization.
Where the spirit of progress is in the land and things apparently move forward spontaneously, brave and ener- getic men and women are in a world in which what they say is possible many stand ready to help them accom- plish. It is easy to say there is no necessary man or woman, but take a few thousand lives from the world's history, and how unprofitable, barren and uninteresting its pages would become !
Had Mother Caroline never come to the United States who will affirm that much that is best in many of our Western dioceses would be altogether what it is? She was the soul of the first band of School Sisters who came to this country, and the willingness and success with which she provided for parochial schools even in poor and remote places, became a source of courage and confidence for all who believe in the necessity of religious education. Archbishop Spalding says, ^^Her services in behalf of Catholic schools are of inestimable value, as without parish schools there is no hope that the Church will be able to maintain itself in America. '^
In the course of years Mother Caroline also established higher schools of learning, as she considered such institu- tions a great necessity and quite in accordance with the spirit of Holy Rule. She desired that these high schools should be thoroughly equipped and spared no pains and no expense to that effect. It was not her wish, however, to open many of these high schools and academies, there- fore, she refused numerous applications of this kind. She thought these establishments required too many subjects that might be more profitably employed for the general benefit of Catholic youth in parochial schools. Mother Caroline most emphatically declared parochial schools and orphan asylums to be the providential sphere of a
726 The Catholic Educational Review
School Sister's vocation. She always assured the Sisters that to act contrary to this principle were to deviate from the spirit of their blessed founder and the special duty assigned them by Divine Providence. This accounts for the numerous parochial schools conducted by the School Sisters of Notre Dame. The poorer the parish the more desirous was this magnanimous soul to send Sisters to labor for the welfare of God's poor children.
In 1886 this charitable religious commissioned a band of School Sisters to care for the Indian children of Har- bor Springs, Michigan, and in 1892, previous to her holy death, she took charge of the deaf mute school at Chin- chuba, Louisiana.
The crowning act of the life of this great religious educator was the erection of the Perpetual Adoration Chapel which is connected with the Central Motherhouse, Milwaukee. Noble and grand were the motives which prompted Mother Caroline to erect this beautiful chapel. A Motherhouse, she was wont to say, is the home of the youngest and the eldest members of a religious congre- gation, and she always felt that the candidates and nov- ices should be initiated in the exercises and spirit of prayer, especially in the love and adoration of the heav- enly Bridegroom to Whom they desire to consecrate themselves. The elder Sisters should find a good home in the Motherhouse, there to pass the remainder of their lives at the feet of their Divine Spouse. To accomplish this, she felt that nothing higher or holier could be offered them than the adoration of Jesus in the mystery of His infinite love.
The convent located in Milwaukee has always remained the chief Motherhouse and novitiate of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, and is also the normal training school for postulants who are aspiring to the vocation of teaching.
The curriculum for the postulants is kept as closely as possible along the lines of the requirements for the best
School Sisteks of Notre Dame 727
schools in the country. Before taking up this important vocation, each postulant is required to pass a rigid exam- ination in every branch of study. After spending three years in the normal department of the Order, the postu- lant enters upon her novitiate.
Most important of all is the religious training which the School Sister receives to fit her for the exalted posi- tion of religious teacher in the parochial school. This is, after all, the vineyard into which the Lord has preemi- nently called the School Sister of Notre Dame to labor for the salvation of souls. This great work is under the immediate direction of the Rt. Rev. Mgr. P. M. Abbelen, who has so zealously and untiringly devoted the best years of his life to this work. For thirty-five years this pious and learned priest has acted in the capacity of Spiritual Director.
The government of the Congregation is similar in its workings to our national government. The Commissary General and her four assistants, elected for a term of six years, reside at the Central Motherhouse. The super- vision of the entire Order is in their hands. Commenting upon the government of the Order of Notre Dame, the late Very Rev. Michael Hurley, Vicar General of the diocese of Peoria, said : ^ ^ I know of nothing grander than the unity and harmony which prevails among the School Sisters of Notre Dame, which is undoubtedly due to the fact that they are so beautifully disciplined and that each member realizes the truth of the saying, 'In union there is strength.' '' '
The Congregation at the present time is ably governed by Mother Marianne, who is the fourth Commissary Gen- eral of the School Sisters of Notre Dame.
The Order maintains Provincial Motherhouses in Balti- more, Maryland, and St. Louis, Missouri. Owing to the extension of the Order in the Northwest a third Provin- cial Motherhouse became a necessity, and is now being erectftd at Mankato, in the Diocese of Winona, Minnesota. A School Sister of Notre Dame.
SURVEY OF THE FIELD
The deliberations of the Chief State School Officers of the North Central and Western States, at their Con- ference, to be held in Topeka, Kansas, from the 18th to the 20th of this month, will be followed with keen in- terest by the teachers of the country and by all who are interested in our high schools, colleges and universities. Among the subjects of prime interest that are scheduled for discussion at the forthcoming Conference the pro- posed plan for the granting of teachers' certificates, which will hold throughout the entire country, easily holds the first place. Heretofore, teachers INTERSTATE moviug from one state to another have CERTIFICATION fouud the matter of certification embar- rassing. To remove this difficulty, which frequently amounts to injustice, from the pathway of worthy teachers who may find it necessary to move from state to state, is indeed a laudable undertaking on the part of the Chief State School Officers; but the task is not as simple as it might seem at first sight, and great care will be necessary on the part of the school officers to prevent the remedy sought from inflicting graver injury and injustice in other directions.
The problem of interstate certification is not a new one ; it has been dealt with at previous conferences. At the last conference, which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah, November 17-19, 1910, the following principles govern- ing the recognition of diplomas from standard colleges and universities situated in other states, and certificates issued in other states, were adopted:
SUKVEY OF THE FlELD 729
A. RECOGNITION OF DIPLOMAS FROM STAn1)ARD COLLEGES AND
UNIVERSITIES
A diploma from a standard college or university- granted upon the completion of 120-liour course, includ- ing 15 hours in education, shall be recognized.
Definition of a Standard College or University,
To be considered a standard college or university all the following conditions must be fully met :
1. The completion of a four-year secondary course above eighth grade shall be required for college entrance.
2. The completion of 120 semester hours shall be re- quired for graduation.
3. The number of class hours for the heads of depart- ments and for students shall not exceed 20 a week.
4. A faculty properly qualified shall consist entirely of graduates of standard colleges and each head of a depart- ment shall hold at least a master's degree from a stan- dard college or have attained eminent success as a teacher, which success shall be determined by the Chief State School Officer of the state in which the school is located.
5. The library shall consist of at least 5,000 volumes, selected with reference to college subjects and exclusive of public documents.
6. The laboratory equipment shall be sufficient to es- tablish efficient laboratories in all laboratory courses offered.
7. The means of support is defined as requiring a per- manent endowment of not less than $200,000, or an as- sured fixed annual income, exclusive of tuition, of at least $10,000; provided that this requirement shall not be mandatory until ^yq years after the institution has been recognized. The college must maintain at least
730 The Catholic Educational Eeview
seven separate departments or chairs in the arts and sciences. In case the pedagogical work of the institution is to be accepted for certification, the college must main- tain at least eight chairs, one of which shall be devoted exclusively to education or at least to philosophy, includ- ing psychology and education. The head of each depart- ment shall, in no case, devote less than three-fourths of his time to college work.
B. recognition of diplomas or certificates from standard
NORMAL SCHOOLS
By a standard normal school is meant a school meeting the following requirements:
1. For entrance, four years work above the eighth grade in an accredited secondary school.
2. For graduation therefrom, two years additional work, including a thorough review of the common branches and training in a practice school.
3. The maintenance of a well-equipped training school for observation and practice, such school to cover work in the eight elementary grades.
4. The total attendance in the secondary school and in the normal school shall be 216 weeks above the eighth grade, provided, that any normal school may accept satisfactory credits covering twenty weeks work above the eighth grade.
(This definition relates to the following resolution passed at the Lincoln Conference: Moved, That we rec- ommend the recognition of certificates based on the com- pletion of a two-year course in standard state normal schools, for teaching in the elementary schools; and the recognition of certificates based upon the completion of a four-years ' course in like schools for teaching in second- ary schools.)
Survey of the Field 731
c. recognition^ of credits secured upon examination by state authorities
Credits shall be accepted when secured in accordance with the following requirements:
1. Credits obtained by examination for the correspond- ing grade of certificate, provided the examination ques- tions are prepared and answer papers graded by the state department of education, shall be accepted subject for subject. Provided: That the passing standing shall not be less than eighty per cent in any subject; provided further, that in determining the corresponding grade of certificate this recognition of credits shall apply to any certificate regardless of territorial restrictions in the state wherein the certificate was issued.
2. Equivalent credits for any subject or subjects may be accepted at the discretion of the proper authority of the state wherein recognition is sought.
3. Credits for successful experience may be allowed in accordance with the regulations in force in the state where recognition is sought.
D. RECOGNITION OF DIPLOMAS AND CERTIFICATES
Diplomas or certificates subject to interstate recogni- tion shall enjoy the same privileges as similar certificates or diplomas in the state wherein recognition is sought. The Conference which adopted these resolutions rep- resented fifteen of the north central and west- UNiFORM ern states and in the interest of uniform STANDARDS staudards, an effort is now being made to have these principles recognized throughout the whole country. A uniform standard in educational mat- ters has many things to recommend it, but the advan- tages to be gained should not blind us to the significance of some of the conditions laid down. For example, the
732 The Catholic Educational Review
seventh condition, which must be fully complied with by an educational institution before it can be recognized as a standard college, would exclude many colleges that are doing work of a high grade. No matter how able the fac- ulty, or how well equipped the institution in libraries and
laboratories, no matter how long the course THE DOLLAK or how Varied, no matter how rigidly high STANDARD Standards are maintained in all that pertains
to character and scholarship, the institution must waive its right to be considered a standard college unless it has a permanent endowment of $200,000, or an assured fixed annual income, exclusive of tuition, of at least $10,000. There is only one concession allowed : the institution is given five years after recognition in which to complete its endowment. There is here at least a frank acknowledgement of the power of money. Were we listening to the directors of one of the great financial interests, we would probably have expected them to ac- knowledge the rule of the god Mammon, but one is hardly prepared for the formal recognition of this deity by the ^'Conference of the Chief State School Officers for the North Central and Western States.'^
There are a great many Catholic colleges in the United States that have been doing excellent work. Their teachers are men and women who have consecrated their lives to the work of education without any thought of personal compensation. They renounced the world with its luxuries and vanities and have left the matter of their future support entirely to the religious communities of which they are members in order that they might give their whole heart and soul to the noble THE CHRISTIAN work of educatiou. They refuse abso- STANDARD lutcly to valuc their work in terms of
dollars and cents, and yet the services of these teachers are beyond all price and the institution that is dowered with such a faculty can well afford to
Survey of the Field 733
dispense with the $200,000 permanent endowment fund de- manded by our Chief State School Officers as a condition sine qua non of being recognized as a standard college.
How long will the Catholics of the United States patiently bear the injustice of the present situation! After paying their share of the taxes for the support of a state school system which is growing more elaborate and costly every year, they have built up their own schools in which they educate one million and a half of the chil- dren of the nation. Fifty thousand of their sons and daughters have devoted their lives to the cause of edu- cation in the various teaching communities of the Catho- lic Church, and now they are calmly told that the work of their educational institutions cannot be recognized by the Chief School Officers of the States be- THE CONFLICT cause they have not sufficient financial en- dowment to satisfy the demands of a school system in which teaching has avowedly descended from its high plane and contented itself with the discharge of an economic function.
It will be observed that the conditions, as laid down by the Conference, are vitiated throughout by this finan- cial standard. High schools and normal schools, no less than colleges, are ruled out, indirectly, by this funda- mental requirement. The fourth condition which must be fully met by any institution in order that it be recognized as a standard college reads ^ ^ a faculty properly qualified shall consist entirely of graduates of standard colleges, and each head of a department shall hold at least a master's degree from a standard college, or have attained
eminent success as a teacher, which success AN EDUCA- shall be determined by the Chief State School TioNAL Officer of the state in which the institution is MONOPOLY located. '^ In addition, therefore, to the
$200,000 endowment, all the faculty must have received their education in institutions thus dowered.
734 The Catholic Educational Eeview
The worshipers of Mammon are not willing to take any chances with teachers who drink from the fountains of higher inspiration. Four years of residence and work in an endowed college are required of the humblest instruc- tor in a standard college, and the master's degree, which requires at least an additional year in a similar institu- tion, is demanded of the heads of seven or eight depart- ments. If Catholic generosity were to endow our Catho- lic colleges up to the measure required by the Chief State School Officers, they would still be debarred from recognition until such time as their faculties could be educated over again in the kind of colleges that recog- nize the supreme dominion of money. In like manner, the faculties of secondary schools and normal schools must qualify under the direction of standard colleges other- wise the work of these institutions will not be recognized as sufficient to prepare candidates for college or for the teaching profession in any public educational institution.
It is to be hoped that the educators who undertook at their previous conferences to lay down conditions essen- tial to a standard college did not advert to the full signifi- cance of the fourth and seventh conditions. Of course the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching has amply demonstrated the power of money A NATIONAL iu the determination of educational stand- MENACE ards, but this institution, after all, reaches
only such schools and colleges as are willing to sell their birthright for a mess of pottage. It is a far more serious thing, however, when the Chief State School Officers of fifteen of our states place money as an essen- tial condition for the equipment of our educational insti- tutions.
Just now the question of a paid versus a non-paid school board is under discussion in the city of New York. Mayor Gaynor, in the proposed new charter, re-
Survey of the Field 735
placed the old board, consisting of forty-six unpaid mem- bers, with a much smaller board, each member of which
is to be paid a salary of $9,000 or $10,000 a A PAID year. President Lowell of Harvard, President SCHOOL Butler of Columbia, Dr. Draper, State Com- BOAED missioner of Education, and other educational
leaders, are vigorously opposing Mayor Gay- nor's plan. The arguments pro and con are worthy of attention by all who are interested in the problems of school administration. It should be observed from the start that saving the tax-payers of the city of New York $150,000 or $200,000 a year scarcely enters into the controversy. The question is not to save the tax- payers tQoney, but to secure for New York City an ef- ficient school system. The American belief in the pur- chasing power of money, which was so conspicuous in the deliberations of the Chief State School Officers of the North Central and Western States and the opposition of such men as President Butler and his associates to a paid board of education are somewhat paradoxical. Whether he is right or wrong. President Butler evidently believes that he is far from being alone in the contention that a paid school board would lower the efficiency of the system. In his letter of June 29th to Mayor Gaynor he says:
*^In 1895 and 1896 the question of a paid board of education was fought out in all its details before the pub- lic, and before the legislature. The proposal to establish such a paid board was at that time almost unanimously condemned. I venture to think that, if sub- UNANiMous jected to public discussion now, a similar OPPOSITION proposal would meet the same fate for precisely the reasons that led to the con- clusions arrived at fifteen years ago. I doubt whether any man in the whole United States who has made for
736 The Catholic Educational Eeview
himself a reputation as an educational administrator or as a student of educational administration will advise the establishment of a paid board of education in the city of New York. This is the system [non-paid school board] of administration by which our schools have everywhere been built up, and it is also the system which has made our colleges and universities what they are. In the institutions of higher learning the trustees or regents have similar functions to those of EEGENTS the board of education in a municipal
AND school system, while the presidents and
EDUCATIONAL facultics are the paid experts who are EXPERTS charged with the responsibility of master-
ing the educational problems and of taking the initiative in proposing steps for their solution. It is a fallacy to suppose that better and more effective serv- ice can be had from members of a school board who are paid than from members of a school board who are un- paid. The history of American public school administra- tion proves conclusively that the reverse is true. Men and women of the highest type will accept appointment as members of an unpaid board of education who would not think of serving in such a position if a salary were attached to it. In my judgment, and in the judgment of every student of education whom I DISADVANTAGES have cousultcd, the establishment of a OE SALARY paid board of education in the city of New
York would be the first step, and a long one, toward the restoration here of the deplorable con- ditions which formerly existed, and which the long years of struggle from 1883 to 1896 on the part of many of our best and most disinterested citizens succeeded in dis- placing. ' ^
If President Butler's argument is valid when applied to non-paid regents and school boards, why does it not
Survey of the Field 737
apply with still greater force to teachers and to profes- sors in our colleges and universities? The A suggestive teaching office is closely allied to that of PARALLEL the parents; the teacher is the real trans-
mitter of the child ^s spiritual inheritances, and we instinctively shrink from the thought of attach- ing salary to the functions of parenthood. In this con- nection, the words of the Master ring in one's ears : ^I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and flieth ; and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep ; and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling; and he hath no care of the sheep. ' ' And yet in the judgment of President Butler there is no question in the matter of paying teachers any more than there is question of pay- ing the supervisory force in the public school system of New York. He says in the letter from which we have just quoted: *'The city Superintendent, the Board of Superintendents, the Board of Examiners, the Super- intendent of School buildings, and the other administra- tive officers of the school system — these are the properly paid officials of the educational system. They are the experts with whom the right of initiative and recommen- dation must rest unless we are to have an experimental chaos substituted for order in the schools.'*
We are not objecting to the policy of paying teachers and school superintendents for the work which they per- form in the schools of New York for the very simple reason that unless these people are paid they could not afford to give their time to the schools. Mayor Gaynor evidently looks upon the school board in the same light, for he says in his answer to President Butler, *'I am unable to understand why anybody objects to paying
738 The Catholic Educational Review
members of the board for their work. The administra- tion of our schools consumes more than one- STATE fourth of our budget. If the board is made
LIMITATIONS an unpaid small board, I am certain that I do not know how to get men to accept the places who will do the work properly. If you know, I shall be glad to have you tell me. I had a letter in the Outlook on the subject last week. One objection is that paid members would bring politics into the board. How can paid members bring any more politics than unpaid members? I have some splendid men in mind for ap- pointment, but they could not afford to serve unless paid, the same as you and I are paid. ' '
The state has undertaken the work of education, but she has no adequate means for creating or sustaining a force of select men and women who will devote their lives to the work of education without any thought of personal compensation. The Church, however, has solved the problem and says to her THE CHURCHES tcachcrs and school officers in the very SOLUTION words of her Divine Founder : Be not so-
licitous, therefore, saying, what shall we eat; or what shall we drink ; or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after these things do the heathens seek. For your father knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you. In the teaching communities of the Catholic Church each member devotes his life to the work of education and leaves the whole question of maintenance in the hands of the community. It goes without saying that it is not possible for the rank and file of our public school teachers who work with all the zeal and devotion that could be expected of them to dispense with salary, for there is
SUKVEY OF THE FlELD 739
no one to bear their burdens for them, no one who would be solicitous for their food and raiment.
The real purpose underlying the opposition to a paid school board, however, comes to light in many passages of President Butler's letters to Mayor Gaynor. In his letter of July 6th he says : ^*I repeat that there is no work for the members of a paid board of education to do unless that work takes the form of interfering with, or doing over again, the work of the professional officers of the school system. * * * I do not particularly fear the
introduction of what is called politics into the A DUMMY schools, for that may happen under any sys- SCHOOL tem of administration; but I do very much BOAED fear the substitution of personal and official
meddling for expert initiative and direction.*' Here is the nerve of the whole argument. We must not have a school board that will take their work seriously or devote their time to educational matters ; and if we had a paid school board its members might possibly look into things. They might take themselves seriously and feel bound in honor or in conscience to exert some real con- trol over the schools, and this would not suit a group of self-constituted educators who have been systematically breaking every line of control which the people formerly held over the schools which they support and to which they send their children.
The school does not exist for its own sake. It is, in its essence, a specialized offshoot of the home, performing functions that in primitive society belonged almost ex- clusively to the home. The education of the child is and must always remain a matter of vital concern to the home, to the church and to the state. The school has no right to control the child or his development except such as is conferred upon it by the parents, by the church,
740 The Catholic Educational Eeview
or by the state. The recent tendency of the public school system of the United States to constitute itself an edu- cational trust which sets aside all higher usuEPATiON authority is a grave menace to our country. OF AUTHORITY All our citizcus are deeply concerned in the welfare of our public schools. These schools are supported by the people, they are maintained to serve the interests of the people and on their proper functioning in no small measure depends our liberty and the future of our country. The thoughtful student can- not contemplate without deep concern the gradual usur- pation of all authority in educational matters by a small group of self-constituted educational experts. The danger of this system becomes so manifest that no one can fail to see it when thirty million dollars, the gift of a single man, has been able to control to so great an ex- tent the standardizing of our educational institutions and the shaping of our educational policies. When such things are possible, it is high time for the citizens to awaken to a realization of the danger and to demand that the moneyed interests be not allowed to pollute the foun- tains of inspiration at which our future citizens must, in so large a measure, drink.
THE LAW AND THE AMEEICAN CHILD.
In the June issue of the Pedagogical Seminary, under the title The Law and the American Child , will be found a dissertation by Thomas Charles Carrigan, submitted to Clark University in partial fulfilment for the degree of doctor of philosophy. The paper is attracting wide- spread attention among educators and members of the legal profession. It is a careful piece of research work in a new field and brings together in brief outline the legislation of the several states bearing on child life. In its scope it includes the laws dealing with the child's right to be well born, such as those governing marriage, divorce, and the obligations of parents towards unborn children. Subsequent sections of the thesis deal with such topics as : Prevention of Blindness, Vital Statistics, Milk Laws, Compulsory School Attendance Laws, Tru- ancy, Medical Inspection of Schools, Laws for Child Pro- tection, Juvenile Court Laws, Child Labor Laws, Eights of the Child, Eights of Parents, etc. In fact, those who are interested in child welfare will find in Dr. Carrigan 's thesis a guide to our legislation in all that pertains to the child's life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
The wide range of the dissertation, its wealth of fact, its thorough organization of rich materials, no less than its brilliant style, evidence maturity of mind, ripe scholar- ship, and years of experience, qualities not usually found in a candidate for academic degrees, but it should be re- membered that Dr. Carrigan 's love for the work of edu- cation took him back to Clark University for his doctorate after a brilliant legal career of fourteen years at the Massachusetts bar.
Dr. Carrigan has recently accepted an appointment as a member of the faculty of the Catholic University of
742 The Catholic Educational Review
America, where he will lend his assistance to the Depart- ments of Education and Law. His future work will be the natural following out of his labors in Worcester, where he was appreciated no less for his legal work than for his labors in the field of education.
Dr. Carrigan was born in Worcester in 1872. He grad- uated from the classical and English high school in 1892. In the subsequent years he continued his studies at Holy Cross College, Worcester, Ottawa College, and Boston College, where he received the degree of A. B. in 1895, after which he immediately took up the study of law under the late Henry Eveleth Hill and in the law school of Boston University. In 1897 he was admitted to the bar, but remained in the office of Mr. Hill until 1902. From 1894 Dr. Carrigan taught continually in the even- ing schools of Worcester. In 1897 he accepted a position in the evening high school as an assistant in preparing candidates for the Civil Service. The combination of teaching with legal work led Dr. Carrigan to seek higher academic degrees in Clark University, where he received the degree of Master of Arts in June, 1910, his disserta- tion being Juvenile Delinquency in Worcester. Continu- ing to work along similar lines, in June, 1911, he pre- sented his thesis on The Law and the American Child, and received the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
It is reasonable to expect that in the years to come Pro- fessor Carrigan will continue to render signal services in the cause of education and that our Catholic schools throughout the country and the readers of the Catholic Educational Review will profit by his extensive knowl- edge of school legislation.
Thomas Edward Shields.
THE SISTERS' COLLEGE.
With the permission of the Board of Trustees of the Catholic University an institute for the collegiate training of our teaching Sisters, to be known as The Sisters' Col- lege, has been opened in connection with the University. In this institute the Sisters will follow courses leading to the degrees of the University. The instruction will be under the direction of the University, but will be given apart from its regular courses and outside of the Uni- versity grounds, for the present in the Convent of the Benedictine Nuns at Brookland. Several University pro- fessors have agreed to give their services as teachers in the new institute, which is modeled more or less closely on the St. Ann's Institute at Munster, in Prussia, carried on under the direction of the Prussian Episcopate, and so far quite successful.*
The college is open to all teaching Sisters sent by their superiors, and on the successful completion of its courses the University will grant the degrees lawfully earned by the students of the College. Credit for work of a col- legiate character done else\^here will be allowed, and examinations may be taken for advanced standing. The College will be conducted on the usual lines of the aca- demic work of the University, of which it becomes an integral part, so that the graduates of the College are truly members of the University. The need of such an institute has long been keenly felt by our teaching Sisters, and they have frequently importuned the University au- thorities to open to them, in some becoming way, the doors of this great central Catholic school. The Trustees of the University have finally agreed to permit the begin-
*Cf. The Catholic University Bulletin, May, 1908, p. 421.
744 The Catholic Educational Eeview
ning of the good work in a modest way and with all due safeguards for the religious life of the Sisters. Twenty Sisters have already entered the College, 6 Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin, Dubuque, Iowa, 3 Benedic- tine Sisters, Brokland, D. C, 2 Sisters of Jesus Mary, one from Quebec, Canada, and one from London, England, 2 Sisters of the Incarnate Word, San Antonio, Texas, 3 Sisters of Providence, St. Mary's of the Woods, Indiana, 2 Sisters of the Immaculate Heart, Scranton, Pa., 2 Sis- ters of St. Dominic, Sinsinawa, Wis., 3 Sisters of Divine Providence, Newport, Ky., 1 Sister of the Holy Humility of Mary, Cleveland, Ohio, 2 Sisters of Mercy, Chicago, 111. The Sisters ' College was regularly opened on October Third with the Mass of the Holy Spirit and a pertinent discourse by the Eight Eeverend Eector of the Univer- sity.
NEW APPOINTMENTS ON THE TEACHING STAFF OF THE CATHOLIC UNIVEESITY.
In the School of Theology Rev. Dr. Franz Coin has been appointed Instructor in the Old Testament. He will also conduct a class of exegesis in the New Testament. Dr. Coin taught for several years in the ecclesiastical seminary at Trier. He is deeply versed in several Orien- tal languages, Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Coptic, and until recently was lecturer in Assyriology at the University of Bonn. For several years he edited the '^Oriens Chris- tianus/' one of the most learned of the special reviews devoted to Oriental languages and literature. Dr. Coin is about forty years of age, and takes up his important work with unique and highly admirable preparation. The Catholic University has now three Orientalists of acknowledged reputation, the nucleus of an excellent school of Scripture studies.
In the School of Letters Dr. Paul Gleis, a graduate of the University of Miinster, has been appointed in German language and literature on the Anthony Walburg Chair. Dr. Gleis is a favorite disciple of Professor Jostes, pro- fessor of Germanics at Miinster and a foremost authority on early German literature. Though a young man of only twenty-four Dr. Gleis has already won a reputation in the province of early medieval German and allied studies. Apart from his extensive and accurate knowledge of mod- ern German literature, he has made proficient studies in the oldest phases of the Arthurian sagas, and has already taken his place among the most successful in- vestigators of the Parsifal and Merlin legends. His advent will be welcomed by all American Germanists.
In the School of Philosophy Dr. Thomas C. Carrigan, of Worcester, Mass., a graduate in Education of Clark
746 The Catholic Educational Eeview
University (1911), enters the Department Education as Instructor in School Organization and Management. Dr. Carrigan is thirty-nine years of age, a graduate of Holy Cross College, Worcester, and of the Boston Law School, and for fourteen years practiced law with success in his native city. For several years he has devoted himself with ardor to educational studies and is the author of a unique and important work on educational legislation: *^The Law and the American Child. '^ This dissertation received the highest praise from Dr. Gr. Stanley Hall, President of Clark University, as a very brilliant, thorough and unique study of the child legislation of all the states in the union. Dr. Carrigan will also conduct courses in the School of Law, to be determined later ac- cording to the needs of the students.
In the School of Law Mr. Ammi Brown, A.M. (Harv- ard, 1902), has been appointed Instructor in Common Law and will act as secretary of the Law Faculty. Mr. Vincent Leroy Toomey, LL.B. (Catholic University, 1909), has also been appointed Instructor in Common Law. Dr. Thomas C. Carrigan will conduct two courses, one on the Law of Wills and the other on Law and the American Child. The teaching staff in the Law Faculty now consists of five professors and instructors who devote their entire time to the conduct of the School. A large number of students have entered the first year of the Law School. Professor William C. Eobinson, the head of the School and author of several widely used text-books of American law, has returned to his work in renewed health and with the above staff looks forward to a new life for the Department of Law.
In the School of Science Mr. Charles Lawler Kelly, A.B. (Clark College, Worcester, 1909), has been ap- pointed Instructor in Chemistry. Mr. John James Cant-
New Appointments at the University 747
well, B.S. (The Catholic University, 1911), has been ap- pointed Instructor in Drawing. Mr. John Joseph Haley, C.E. (Tufts College, 1911), has been appointed Instructor in Civil Engineering. Mr. James Francis Connor, A.B. (Amherst College, 1900), and for several years instructor in Mathematics at the Boys ' Latin School, Baltimore, has been appointed Instructor in Mathematics.
The teaching staff of the University now numbers fifty- eight, including instructors, student-assistants and fel- lows. Of these twenty-four are ecclesiastics, the other thirty-four are laymen.
DISCUSSION.
FIRST STEPS IN WRITTEN LANGUAGE
When should the context method of reading he employedf Along what lines should the first steps .in reading he conducted?
Since the publication of the article on The Context Method of Reading in the February number of the Re- view a great many questions similar to these two have reached us from primary teachers in various parts of the country. We shall endeavor to include the answers to as many of these questions as possible in the present discussion.
The context method, as its name implies, is not avail- able in the initial stage of teaching the child to read. The fundamental principle in the context method de- mands that the unknown words be so distributed in a con- text of known words that the meaning of the sentence shall enable the child to discover the new word for him- self. A written vocabulary, however limited, is an in- dispensable prerequisite to the context method. From six weeks to four months, at the beginning of the first grade, is usually required to give the child a mastery of the necessary vocabulary. This work should precede the use of a book; it should be conducted wholly by the aid of blackboard and chart. When this initial vocabu- lary is chosen with direct reference to the child ^s first book, it is possible to limit it to two hundred words, or even less, particularly when the first book has been pre- pared along the lines of the context method.
In exceptional cases the child of six years of age has learned to read at home, but in* the great majority of eases the children, on their first appearance in school,
Discussion 749
have only a spoken vocabulary and that is quite limited in range and full of imperfections, nevertheless, it is with this vocabulary that the children must begin their school work and it should be utilized to the fullest extent by the teacher. Moreover, the child's spoken vocabulary constitutes one of the strongest bonds between the home and the school and for this reason it should not be dis- turbed until the child has learned to feel quite at home in the school. After a week or two the teacher may pro- ceed to correct imperfections in pronunciation and mis- takes in the use of words, but in this she should proceed with great caution. The children must not be humiliated or made self-conscious, and above all there must be no implied correction of the home standards and no reflec- tion upon the knowledge of the home group; in a word, the negative method, in this phase of the child's educa- tion, should be avoided with scrupulous care, for in ad- dition to the usual dangers of this method there is here grave danger of injurying fundamental elements in the child's character and of weakening his respect for par- ental authority. If the teacher uses language correctly herself, and if she insists on the children using it cor- rectly, there will be no need to call the attention of the school to a child's mistakes in pronunciation or in the use of words. Both of these defects will rapidly disappear if left alone.
Where English is the native language of the child, the teacher need not concern herself much with the task of increasing his spoken vocabulary ; this will grow naturally and without apparent effort on her part, for in this field the context method is employed naturally by the teacher and by the children. Nor is the method limited to the school- room. The children, particularly when fortunately situ- ated, enlarge and perfect their spoken vocabulary at home and on the playground.
750 The Catholic Educational Review
Much of the blundering which has characterized prim- ary methods during the past few decades may be traced directly to a misunderstanding of the relations which should exist between the child ^s written and spoken vo- cabularies. The child who has not yet learned to read uses the auditory symbols in connection with all his thinking. The direct and primary pathways in his brain are from the temporal lobe to the motor area and second- arily to the speech centers. When we undertake to teach him to read, we endeavor to substitute the visual for the auditory symbol. Evidently this substitution should be made without disturbing the motor or thought complexes.
The translation of written into oral language is the last stage in the process ; it is the conclusion of the syllog- ism. The two symbols designating the same thought are equivalent. From these elemental principles in the psy- chology of the process under consideration, we may readily deduce two of the fundamental rules which should govern the initial stages of the process of teaching the child to read.
I. The first written vocabulary taught to a child must lie well within the hounds of his spoken vocabulary. It should, in fact, be chosen from the most vivid portions of the child's spoken vocabulary.
II. The written symbols must be connected immediately with the things signified. It will not do to have spoken language intervene between the written language and the things which it describes.
It is a matter of the greatest importance that the child should think in written language from the very begin- ning. The case is analogous to that presented by older pupils who undertake to master a foreign language. It is a matter of common observation that so long as we con- tinue to think in our own language, we acquire but scanty facility in the use of any other language. So long as we have to translate our thoughts before giving them
Discussion 751
expression our language will be stiff and artificial. Ease comes only when we think in the very symbols that we use in speaking or in writing. This is as true of the relationship between written and spoken language as it is of that between one's native and a foreign tongue, and it is as true of the child as it is of the man. Many of our most facile writers have talked haltingly, and some of our greatest talkers have had little power with their pens. It should be our aim to develop in the children power along both lines and this cannot be done unless they are taught to think in the language of the eye as well as in the language of the ear. The children have already learned to think in spoken language, and the tendency is very strong to continue to think in these symbols, hence it is necessary to build up the power of visual language without translating it into oral language.
The children's written language should begin with action words which the teacher should write on the black- board and illustrate for the children by doing the thing signified. After this the written words should be used by the teacher as a command or a permission for the children to perform the actions signified. The names of various familiar objects should be written on the board and the children should be allowed to handle them and exercise their several senses upon them.
There should no attempt to build up syllables out of letters and words out of syllables in the initial stages of teaching the children to read. The utterance is the natural unit of language ; it is in this way that the child has learned his spoken language and in the mastery of written language he will also find the utterance the most available unit. The utterance may consist of one word or of several, but the child naturally apprehends it as one, as the symbol of a single thought or action. Later on he will recognize words as the component parts of
752 The Catholic Educational Review
symbols by observing the same word in different utter- ances. The recognition of syllables and individual char- acters will gradually develop in the child's conscious- ness in the same maimer.
It is scarcely necessary to lay stress on a third funda- mental rule for primary reading, but the rule is many- sided and enters into so many phases of the educative process that it is well to keep it in mind from the ver^ start.
III. Reading in the primary grades must not he iso- lated from the other school exercises. It must be quietly introduced into all the child's thoughts and actions; it must be associated with his physical culture, with the exercise of his imagination, with the training of his senses, with his aesthetic and religious development.
A typical fruit lesson for first grade work will serve as a concrete illustration of the way in which the symbols of written language may be made to take root in the child's conscious life.
On the teacher's desk there is a covered basket of fruit containing apples, pears, peaches, lemons, oranges, grapes, etc. The children are lined up with their hands behind them, while the teacher allows each child in turn to touch the surfaces of the various fruits without look- ing at them and to name them to the class. Whenever the correct name is given the teacher praises the child. The fruit is then placed in the hands of the children and they are allowed to exercise upon the various specimens the temperature senses, the muscle sense, and the sense of pressure, as well as the sense of touch. The children are again allowed to name the fruits before being allowed to look at them, after which the fruit is divided and given to the children to eat.
Children accustomed to eating the fruits will generally be found to possess mental pictures of them in which the
Discussion 753
gustatory and the visual elements predominate and in which the other sensory elements are vaguely repre- sented. The object of these exercises is to bring out and strengthen the other sensory elements. After a few drills of this kind the children will posses mental images of these fruits that are rich in detail and strong in the tendency to enter into combinations with other cognitive elements, which are already in the mind or which may be in it subsequently.
After the children have eaten the fruit, the teacher should endeavor to ascertain how many of them have seen these fruits grow. She should lead them to tell all they know about fruit trees and orchards and grape vines. The difference between trees and vines should be brought out and illustrated with pictures (colored pic- tures if possible). The children are then taken to the blackboard and shown a picture of an apple tree with a green apple hanging to one of its topmost branches and a little girl gazing up at it. It is much better, of course, that the teacher make this sketch in the presence of the children. When the children have all recognized the picture, the teacher writes the words * apple' and ^ apple tree' on the blackboard, and explains that the written words stand for the objects, just as the pictured apple and the pictured tree do.
The imaginations of the children are now exercised in sympathy with the child who is trying to get the apple from the tree. The child is supposed to call upon her friend the little bird, sitting on a branch of the tree. He comes to her aid, and the teacher now sketches the bird endeavoring to release the apple by pecking at its stem. The children may here be exercised in finding the word stem and in pronouncing it correctly. The object is shown to them on an apple which is passed around. Their attention is called to the picture of the stem on the
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blackboard ; the word is finally written on the board and the relations between its oral and written forms empha- sized. When the bird fails in its efforts to release the apple, because the stem is too hard for its little bill, the child appeals to another friend, the sun, which is also sketched on the blackboard and the word developed, as in former instances. The children are asked how the sun can help the child and after they have sufficiently puzzled their little heads and exercised their imaginations over the problem, the teacher illustrates with red chalk the effect of the sun^s rays in ripening the apple, and the children are drilled on the written form of the word red. Finally, the child calls upon the wind to come to her aid. This is the signal for a drill in physical culture. One child plays the part of the wind and finds exercise for his lungs in vigorous blowing. The other children, with swaying arms and bodies, imitate the movements of the trees under a strong breeze, until the apple is supposed to be shaken from the branch. The moral and religious elements of this lesson will be found developed in Relig- ion, Second Book, page 27.
It will readily be seen that in the first exercise of this lesson the children's percepts of the various fruits are developed. Sensory elements, heretofore present in a vague way in the consciousness of the children, are brought out and strengthened. Direct experience is sub- stituted for mere representation elements in the case of sev- eral of the subordinate sensations. In the second exercise the strengthened percepts are correlated with other cog- nitive elements previously in the minds of the children. Summer vacations in the country are recalled, experi- ences in picking fruits from the trees and vines are re- vived, the likenesses and differences between the various fruits in their modes of growth are brought into con- sciousness. In the third exercise the imaginations of the
Discussion 755
children are called into play and new combinations of the previous contents of their minds are secured. Their in- formation concerning processes in nature, such as the effects of the sun^s rays and of the wind on the ripening fruits, is enlarged. And in connection with all this fresh, vigorous mental content the written symbols of several of the thought elements and thought combinations are brought out and strengthened.
Thus, in a single brief period, the children, acting in obedience to natural laws, enlarge their store of informa- tion and improve the quality of some of the information which they previously possessed. They build up new thought combinations and become acquainted, to some extent at least, with the play of certain natural forces in their environment. The pleasurable affective state main- tained throughout the lesson keeps their minds con- stantly active and in a receptive attitude. Their imagi- nations as well as their senses are exercised in a healthy manner and trained to act along right lines. They im- prove their use of oral language, get an excellent exer- cise in physical culture, calculated to impart strength to their muscles and grace to their bodies, and, what we are chiefly concerned with in this connection, they lay the secure foundations of written language at the very heart of the child's mental life. Day by day, through exercises of this kind, the child acquires a written vo- cabulary of power which will enable him at pleasure to enlarge and enrich his knowledge of language through the context method of reading.
From simple names and action words the teacher should proceed rapidly to simple action sentences and teach the child to think in written symbols from the be- ginning, which is a matter of the greatest importance not only for the child's future as an elocutionist, but for his future as a student of books.
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In this first stage of the child's acquisition of written language a book is a needless impediment. The holding of a book distracts the child and hampers his movements, but there are graver reasons than this for insisting on blackboard and chart work. Our first task is to imprint on the child's mind the written form of words and sen- tences, and the writing of the words on the board in the child's presence is an important factor in this process. The teacher's writing holds the child's attention and directs it successively to each point along the line of the forming characters. There is thus made upon the child's brain a deeper impression than could be made where the complete word is looked at in its entirety, as is the case when reading from a printed page. This consideration leads naturally to the fourth rule which we would lay down for the teaching of primary reading :
IV. The script form should he taught before the printed form.
Many additional considerations might be adduced in support of this rule. The primary pathway of all sen- sory impressions leads to the motor area of the brain. It is true that the sensory-motor pathway leads to action which will secure appropriate adjustment to the source of stimulation, but the nearest to this primitive pathway and inseparably bound up with it is that which leads to imitation. The child in imitating the teacher's writing deepens the impression made on the eye.
When a child has mastered a written vocabulary of one hundred and fifty to two hundred words, the transi- tion to the printed form may be secured through the use of charts. We are not, however, in favor of the stiff and rigid chart. The teacher should make her own charts with the same freedom that she writes her sentences on the blackboard. A stencil set, which may be obtained at
Discussion 757
any printer's supply company for a couple of dollars and a few cents worth of cardboard cut into strips two or three inches wide and a couple of feet long is all that is needed. The sentences that the children have learned to recognize in the script form should be printed on these strips and work similar to that employed with the script- form repeated. A comparison between the two forms will lend further help. A good deal of interest may be maintained for the children by doing this printing in their presence. The making of the sentences by the children themselves, by putting together blocks or individual let- ters printed on cardboard squares, sometimes proves serviceable in this final stage of preparation for the use of a book.
The fifth rule for elementary reading might be formu- lated as follows:
V. The child should not he allowed to read while his eye rests upon the word until the words have grown so familiar as to he recognized without effort.
In the exercises outlined above no mention was made of vocalizing the utterances which the child learned to rec- ognize. The reasons for this omission will be found in the fifth rule. Correct vocalization is a difficult task and for its adequate performance it is necessary that the focus of corticle energy rest upon the vocal centre. When, however, the child must make an effort to recognize the word, high nerve tension is required in the visual area. When the child attempts to read under conditions which demand simultaneously high tension in these two remote centers of the brain, the result is the drawling reading that so frequently characterizes the child's first efforts.
In the method which we are here advocating the child first acts out the sentence written on the board, after which he copies it with his crayon or pencil, and only
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when he has proved himself thoroughly familiar with the utterance and its meaning is he allowed to translate it into speech. In this translation he should stand with his back to the blackboard and speak from his memory of what was written. In like manner, in reading sentences from the chart, or from his text-book, the child should be taught to look away from the book before pronounc- ing the sentence. This method of reading should be main- tained throughout the first and the early part of the second year. In individual cases it might be continued with profit for a much longer period.
We need scarcely add to this brief sketch the further suggestion that the vocabulary developed in this pre- liminary period should be chosen from the first part of the first book to be put into the child's hands ; and futher- more that the first two or three stories in the book should not contain a single unkown word. If this suggestion is heeded, the child will have time to grow accustomed to the holding of his book and he will have learned to be- lieve is his own power of reading before he meets his first difficulty and the difficulty will thus be more than half overcome in advance.
CURRENT EVENTS
Four new Catholic high schools, two for boys and two for girls, were opened this fall in the city of St. Louis. They are free schools, centrally located, and under the control of a board of directors. The plans for their establishment were made public in connection with a pro-synodal meeting held last June, at which Archbishop Glennon presided. Rev. A. V. Garthoeffner, Diocesan Superintendent of Schools, in explain- ing the project, has said :
"Our ideal, of course, will be separate, independent build- ings, but at present we must content ourselves in establishing these high schools in some centrally located buildings until we have funds which will enable us to erect suitable public buildings. Beginning, we hope, in September, one high school for girls will be conducted in St. Teresa's School, Grand Ave- nue and North Market Street, and will be under the charge of the Sisters of St. Joseph. The other girls' school will be in St. Alphonsus' School, Grand and Cook Avenues, and will be under the charge of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. One of the boys' high schools will be at St. Peter and Paul's, Eighth Street and Allen Avenue. It will supersede the present high school of that parish, which has been a pay institution, and will be taught by the Brothers of Mary. The other boys' high school will be on the north side, in some parish that has not been decided on, and will be in charge of the Christian Brothers.
^'The high schools as we plan them now will be known as high school centers. They will not be parish institutions and will not be controlled by the pastor of the parish where lo- cated, but by a board of directors. To show that they are diocesan institutions and not parish institutions, some popular name equally applicable to the whole diocese will be applied to each. Probably these names will be the names of four former bishops and archbishops of St. Louis — Rosati, Kenrick, Ryan and Kain. These schools will be supported by the con- tributions of the Catholic people. It shall be our endeavor to
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create a fund for buildings needed and to have the work on a permanent basis as soon as possible."
PROMINENT RELIGIOUS OP THE SACRED HEART
The late Mother Catherine Digby, who died recently in Brussels, Belgium, had been a member of the Religious of the Sacred Heart for almost sixty years and had filled the office of Superior General of her community since 1895. Mother Digby was a daughter of a distinguished English-Irish family. She became a convert to the Catholic faith at the age of eighteen and entered the religious life shortly afterward. Her career was spent chiefly in France. As Superior General she visited the convents of the Sacred Heart in this country, Canada and Mexico about thirteen years ago. Her remarkable adminis- trative ability was never better shown than at the time of her community's banishment from France. It is said that she succeeded in establishing a new convent outside of France for every one that had been closed during the persecution.
Mother Sarah Jones, until a few years ago Superior of the Sacred Heart Convent, Kenwood, N. Y., died in September. She was the daughter of Judge Samuel Jones, of New York, and had spent sixty-five of her eighty-eight years in religious and educational work.
AMERICAN SEMINARY FOR FOREIGN MISSIONS
The zealous promotors of the American Seminary for For- eign Missions are rejoicing in the blessing and encouragement given to their work by the Holy See. Rev. Thomas F. Price, of North Carolina, and Rev. James A. Walsh, editor of "The Field Afar," who were sent to Rome as delegates of the Cath- olic Foreign Mission Society to arrange for the establishment of the Seminary, have reported that the Holy Father is deeply interested in the apostolic work, believing that while there are yet in America many pagans to convert, "the development of this work for foreign missions would react most beneficially upon the home needs, strengthening and multiplying vocations in this country."
CuKKENT Events 761
In answer to many inquiries about the new seminary they have published the following paragraph from the original draft forwarded by His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons to the Arch- bishops of the United States :
'^It is proposed to begin the work on a small scale, near some established house of Catholic philosophy and theology. It would seek its permanent home well removed from the heart of city life, gradually securing its own professors, and de- veloping an exclusively apostplic atmosphere. No definite lo- cation is suggested, although a preference has been expressed by the organizers for a center reasonably convenient to the more populous Catholic zones, and, if possible, not too far removed from those states in which a knowledge of foreign missions has already been cultivated. It is expected that apostolic schools will be needed to serve later as feeders to the seminary."
COLLEGE AND SCHOOL NOTES
The newly appointed Kector of the College of Noble Irish- men in Salamanca, Spain, the Rev. Denis J. O'Doherty, D.D., is a brother of the retiring Rector, the Rt. Rev. Michael J. O'Doherty, D.D., Bishop-elect of the diocese of Zamboanga, in Mindanao, P.I. Dr. Doherty was in this country when the news of his appointment as Retcor reached him. He has been lecturing here on educational and sociological questions for almost two years.
Among the college appointments of the new year we note that of Miss Katherine E. Conway to the teaching staff of St. Mary's College, Notre Dame, Ind. For a number of years Miss Conway was assistant editor of "The Pilot." She has lately been managing and literary editor of the "Republic" of Boston. In 1907 the University of Notre Dame conferred on her the Laetare Medal in recognition of her distinguished services as a Catholic writer and lecturer.
Announcement has already been made that the question for a new site for St. Charles' College, which was destroyed by fire on the sixteenth day of last March, was duly submitted
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to the Superior General of the Sulpician Fathers, Very Eev. Henry Garriguet, who resides in Parish. Father Garriquet referred the decision of the matter to His Eminence Cardinal Gibbons, and the Cardinal has decided that the college should be rebuilt on the old site.
The Domestic Science and Manual Training Departments of the public schools of Winona, Minn., are to be opened to the children attending the Catholic schools as a result of a recent action of the local School Board. The Board recognized the fact that the parish schools, by providing for the education of 1,200 pupils, considerably lessened the drain on the public school funds and resolved to offer their pupils the same oppor- tunities for instruction in these branches as are enjoyed in the public schools.
Patrick J. McCormick.
REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
When Should a Child Begin School? An inquiry into the relation between the age of entry and school progress, W. H. Winch, Baltimore, Warwick and York, Inc., 1911 ; pp. 98.
This monograph, though somewhat difficult to the average teacher in this country, possesses unusual merit. It is a piece of careful research which not only yields valuable results in connection with the problem under investigation but, what is still more valuable to teachers in this country, it is full of suggestiveness and cannot fail to be of assistance to those who are undertaking the study of retardation and elimination in our schools. The general result arrived at by the author will prove a surprise to many. He says in his Preface : "I started the inquiry with an opinion in favor of early entry; but my only regret at the conclusion arrived at is due to the pain, as of wasted effort, felt by more than one excellent infant's mis- tress to whom the full force of the figures came home."
The investigation is concerned with the school life of children between the ages of three and six. It is shown quite con- clusively that children who enter school at the age of five after a few months are fully the equal of children who have spent the previous two years in school. The work has important bearing on the kindergarten, or, rather, on the oft-debated question as to whether the kindergarten is helpful or not to the subsequent progress of the child. The following are some of the conclusions arrived at : ^That from the entrance age of three to five, early entrance confers no intellectual advantage on the child either in his infant school work or in his subse- quent progress in later school life. That these conclusions are quite independent of the particular form of teaching adopted. The great elasticity of the English elementary educational system, obtaining more especially during the last ten years, has given rise to a number of widely varying schools, divers both in results and methods. I was careful to include schools of different ideals and different methods in the range of my inquiry. Identical results are found in schools in which the
764 The Catholic Educational Eeview
youngest classes did nothing but 'kindergarten' work, and in schools in which no 'kindergarten' work was done. That, even in poor neighborhods, only a small proportion of children now avail themselves of the permission to come to school at three, and many come after five — the compulsory school age — is passed. That no advantage appears to exist in early entry so far as the subsequent attainment of good behavior and the development of attentiveness are concerned."
The infant school in the English sense of the term has not had a wide development in this country. The compulsory age is usually from six to seven in this country, whereas it is five in England. Permission to attend school is usually withheld until the age of five, whereas in England children of three years are accepted in the infant school. Dr. Winch's conclu- sions, consequently, have not the same practical application here that they possess in England, but the method employed will prove serviceable in a high degree in dealing with many of the problems of our primary grades.
Thomas Edward Shields.
Lessons in Logic, by William Turner, S. T. D., The Catholic Education Press, Washington, D. 0., 1911; pp. 302. This text-book in Logic is the first of the Catholic University series of text-books in Philosophy and is intended for use in Catholic schools and colleges. It aims to present the logic of the scholastics in a form suitable to the requirements of mod- ern philosophical study and by means of a method which will make this study easy and natural for beginners. It is not too much to say that an examination of the book convinces one that the author has succeeded with his plan. He has presented us with a neat and handy volume embodying all that we associate with the logic of the schoolmen and in language well adapted to the needs of our schools. The arrangement and presentation of the various elements of the science and art of logic are so made that their continuity and interrelation are well shown. From the introduction to the end the work has a fullness of expression, and a fund of illustration and example that ban- ished any danger of misunderstanding or confusion. Some terms will be found in it that connote a distinctly different
Reviews and Notices 765
meaning from that employed by many other authors, but they will hardly fail of being understood here.
From another point of view the book will render a real serv- ice. For Catholics the language of English philosophy has many defects and shortcomings, as for instance, that implied by the term ^^substance." Dr. Turner takes every occasion to point out these defects and discrepancies when compared with the terminology of Catholic philosophy, while occupying him- self with the exposition and defense of such well-known schol- astic properties as the syllogism.
His method has the advantage of having been used in the class room for years and found practical. Unlike many of the philosophers. Dr. Turner has realized that the logical order is not always the one to adopt in the presentation of his subject to the class, that it is often the inverse of the pedagogical order. The student's capacities and mental content must be respected before new knowledge can be successfully imparted to him. The teacher in consequence wisely begins where the student can meet him and not where the student ought to be. "The truth which naturally comes first, considering the nature and pre- vious content of the mind, is not always the truth which should come first, logically, that is, considering the abstract relation among the truths themselves." Teachers will appreciate this advantage and find a security in using the method not obtain- able in many other works on the same subject. For those also who look for a trustworthy exposition of the principles under- lying Catholic philosophy, and who would understand the science and art of logic with its manifold applications, this work will be found most satisfactory. For older students it will be a delightful review of a subject which perhaps has never before been presented to them in a more attractive, or inter- esting manner.
Patrick J. McCormick.
Education as Growth, or the Culture of Character, L. H.
Jones, Boston, Ginn & Co., 1911, pp. V-275. This is a book of unusual merit which Catholic educators particularly will welcome. The author does not lack the cour- age of his convictions. He speaks from long experience, ilium-
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ined by wide reading of educational literature. Perhaps the most striking feature of the book, in contradistinction to the pedagogical literature which has made its appearance during the last decade, is the emphasis laid upon the soul as a spiritual being superior to the body which it inhabits and which has a destiny beyond this world. The book, however, is not given up to a theoretical discussion of the spirituality and the immortality of the soul or the freedom and responsibility of man; these matters are rather incidental, or should we say are everywhere assumed rather than proven, while the atten- tion of the reader is directed to the practical issues of educa- tion as seen from the viewpoint of one who is not a materialist. The author was for some years superintendent of schools in Indianapolis, Indiana, and in Cleveland, Ohio, and is widely known as the author of the Jones Readers.
In his introductory chapter, the Point of View, there are many things which every teacher should ponder. And these are not things spun out of the inner consciousness of the theorist, "the author writes out of an experience of more than forty years of teaching and supervision of schools; and it is the result of this extensive experience in actual school work that he has wrought into these pages, rather than the logical analysis of the theme from the standpoint of the abstract student." The relative importance which the author attaches to the development of the soul and the body in education is not left in obscurity. "Fundamental among these [the author's beliefs] is the belief that the human being whose edu- cation is discussed in these pages is, in its essence, a spiritual being, that is, a being whose essential nature is expressed by its thinking, feeling, and willing ; and that its material body is merely a necessary condition to existence in this world of matter. . . . There is implied underneath this view the belief in the immortality of the individual human soul, since it is everywhere considered as enduring and accountable ; while the body is treated as a necessary condition of the performance of human functions and therefore as an actual part of the human being:' This truth, from a somewhat different angle, is stated in a way which should serve many teachers as an anti- dote against prevalent errors in modern psychology. "The
Eeviews and Notices 767
writer believes that there is a wide difference between the cause of mental action and the mere occasion or condition of such action ; and that while conditions or occasions, or even motives, may come to the spirit through the body, the real power to begin, direct and control such action is lodged with the soul and not in the body."
Another truth that should prove very welcome to teachers in these days when so much is heard about physical heredity and its limitations and when the idea of Kedemption is scoffed at stands out clearly in the pages of this book. "The power of one person to enter vicariously into another's life, through the implanting of ideals and motives, is a truth that lies close to the heart of professional teaching, and gives to educational work its highest inspiration." The implications of this truth are brought out in many places, as for example, in the follow- ing: "It is also recognized that evil has the same general op- portunity for increasing its range of power over the world as has good, were it not for two factors, namely, (1) the possibility of vicarious regeneration of others by faithful parents and teachers, who furnish ideals and motives; and (2) the greater strength and persistence of good over evil in the world. Nature is favorable to recovery, whether the disease be physical or moral. This eternal health and sanity at the heart of things is the saving element in all life. The possibility of evil — degeneracy — is the necessary accompaniment of high develop- ment and supernal worth in human character; but it is only the negative side, and it has not the strength nor the per- sistence of the positive, aggressive, saving element in the good." The teacher's need of constant professional study is very well put, and it should help, at least, to disturb the complacency of many teachers who feel that nature has relieved them of the necessity of studying the principles and methods of education. "The author is aware that a few favored persons inherit the ability to understand human nature in the concrete without studying it in the abstract, but he is also aware that most people need all the help possible before attempting to deal with so complex a problem as a school; and he is therefore a firm believer in the study of psychology and allied subjects by all persons who would aspire to the high title of teacher.
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Through long experience in teaching and the supervision of schools he has. observed that those young teachers who at first teach so well by native grace, lose this power after a little while unless they grow interested in a more scientific study of their work. Their supply of native or inherited tact is soon exhausted, and their interest, at first stimulated by novelty, begins to wane unless a careful study of human nature and its needs supplies a more permanent set of motives. Without such study the teacher who started out as a wise, tactful, suc- cessful worker frequently grows into a routine follower of form, and ends in being a mediocre, commonplace, dissatisfied drudge. On the other hand, the author has seen those who blundered openly and unmistakably at first, saved by their earnestness and enthusiasm, which led them to study their profession. Many of these he has seen grow into teachers of great tact, freedom, and efficiency, through this more funda- mental understanding of the principles of teaching. In fact, his observations have led him into the belief that in general only those who keep an interest in the continued study of the principles of their work and their application, continue to be efficient as the years go by, or attain to any degree of success which would warrant their being considered as professional teachers." The book throughout is characterized by good psy- chology, sound philosophy, a healthy mental and moral tone and by the wisdom which experience brings to the alert student.
Thomas Edward Shields.
The Catholic Educational Review
NOVEMBER, 1911
EELIGION IN EDUCATION.!
We bring to a close this evening one of the most successful meetings in the annals of the Catholic Educa- tional Association. The purpose of this Association is expressed in its title. It is educational and it is Catholic. It treats of all the various and complex problems that present themselves in the field of education. It looks at them calmly, and it looks at them in the light not only of educational experience, but also of our Catholic faith ; and in that light it undertakes to solve these problems, not for one day nor one year nor one generation, but for all the years and for all the generations to come, so long as man shall need to walk in the light of faith and with the help of education towards his eternal home with God.
The way in which the Association undertakes to solve the problems, the spirit and the method which direct our efforts, must be very clear to all those who have followed our program and its execution during the past three days. You must have noted this one feature, namely, that Cath- olic educators are not afraid to face a question. We do not disguise the fact or try to hide from ourselves that education has difficulties; but we look those difficulties squarely in the face and we seek counsel frankly, candidly, of each other, and when the various expressions of opinion have been duly weighed, then the Association as
^Address delivered before the Catholic Educational Association at Chicago, June 29, 1911.
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such gives voice at least in the way of advice or of sug- gestion for the betterment of our educational work.
But underlying all these evidences of method, back of all the discussions that have filled these three days, there is something that is more essential, something that you could not but notice, and that is that with us Catho- lics education and religion are inseparably bound to- gether. They may not be reiterated at every moment ; they may not be stated in so many terms by every speaker who appears on this platform ; that is not necessary ; but the keynote, the motive that runs through all the work of this Association, whether in this great city or in any other part of our country — the motive is one and the same, namely, education must be religious and religion must be educational. It is with this in view that I made bold, when I was asked for a subject, to say, *' Religion in Education, ' ' and I might have said with equal justice, as I say it now, *' Education in and with and through and for Religion. ' ' Evidently here we have two distinct terms. One is education and the other is religion. I am not going to try even to explain the first of these, namely, education ; for I take it for granted that most of you at least have followed the meetings of the Association since Monday, and so much has been said about education, about its meaning, its methods, its ideals, its aims, its practical carrying out, that I really do not see what could be added in the way of a fuller enlightenment, or of a deeper wisdom on a subject which has been so amply discussed. But I do think that the moment is opportune, at the close of this meeting of the Association to look at the other term in the title.
What is religion ? I know that a great many of you will say : he is going back almost to the first page of the cate- chism ; and it is true. And not only to the first page, but to the first line on that page. What is religion ? I raise the question here, and I present it to you for this reason :
Eeligion in Education 771
that if we propose to have religion in education or a relig- ious system of education, then evidently the very first requisite is that we should understand very clearly what we mean by religion. It will not do, in a case like this, and in a cause like ours — it will not do to satisfy ourselves with any vague notion of what religion was, or what it is, or what it might be. The moment you make religion a vague thing, an indefinite thing, you take the life out of it. Eeligion, by its derivation, must be definite, must be clear, must come right down to details, to the facts of life. As long as it simply floats in the air, it is not religion ; and we as Catholics have and must have a very clear, definite, exact notion of religion when we advocate the teaching of religion in the schools. I do not think that it is necessary on this occasion to explain more in detail what you and I and all Catholics understand by this word ** Eeligion. ' ' We mean, as you all know, a system of beliefs and a system of practices. Eeligion means believ- ing and doing, and if you eliminate either one or the other, thereby you destroy the very essence of religion. The Catholic Church has never held that religion con- sisted merely and solely in subscribing to a given form- ula of belief. The Church has her formulas; they are sacred and they are put out before all mankind with an authority that comes not from man, but from Him who said, ^^ Going, therefore, teach ye all nations. '' But the Catholic Church has insisted from the beginning that religion means the carrying out in life, in action, of those things which are implied in the Faith that we profess. *' Faith,'* we insist with the Apostle, ^^ Faith without works is dead.*' And it is equally true, as the Apostle again says, that ** without Faith it is impossible to please God. ' ' We believe, we act in accordance with that belief, and there is religion. And when we speak of religion in education, we mean this : that the child from the first day he enters school, is to be taught certain things that he
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shall believe, but he is also to be trained to act in accord- ance with that belief. I simply mention these things which are the A, B, C, of Catholic education.
Some few years ago, not more than two decades, when the question of religion in education or religion in the schools was on the platform, a great many people said, **you cannot put religion in the schools because of the nature of education.'' And one of the most distinguished men who ever held the post of United States Commis- sioner of Education said in my hearing, at a certain meeting in Boston: ^^We cannot put religion in the schools, because religion has one method and the school has another method." He was too good a man at heart to say that religion had no value, but at the same time he was perhaps too shrewd in another respect to admit that education and religion could live together in the same school house. More recently, quite recently, the objection — let us put it that way — the objection has turned on the other element in the equation. Now we are told what religion is.
This name ^^ Religion" has come down to us through a great many centuries. It has come down to us from the days of pagan Rome. It has come down to us through the Ages of Faith. It has survived the storms of the sixteenth century, and it is still understood in a very definite way, both by those who are within the Catholic fold, and by those who are outside that fold. And in all this time and all these acceptations religion has been understood as some sort of a relation between the soul of man and his Maker. But quite recently, very lately, we have been given a new description of religion, and this new description has not come to us from over the sea; it has not come to us by any telegraphy, wireless or otherwise. The new description met the Association shortly after its arrival in the city of Chicago. And religion is therein described as a partnership enterprise
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for refining and strengthening character. I do not believe that there is a single one here — I am sure that there is not a Catholic in this whole country or on the globe itself — that will not say that religion refines and religion strengthens. But when we are told that religion consists merely in this, in strengthening and refining character, then we have a right to ask a few questions. Note this, that in the description given there is not the slightest reference to God ; and yet if religion does not mean some relation between the human mind and God, what in the name of the English language does religion mean ? When we are told that religion consists in or is a partnership enterprise for refining and strengthening character, we may ask this question : Who is to determine what strength or refinement of character means? There are a great many people in this world of ours who have a wonderful strength of character, a wonderful force of will, and when we ask how they employ it, how they expend that strength, too often we find that they expend it and employ it in warring against the very things for which religion exists. There are thousands of people in this country and in other countries who have attained to refinement of character, and neither you nor I would trust them one block away. So mere refinement of character and strength of character are something purely relative, the meaning of which you must define before you bring them into connection with religion, and much more before you dare identify religion with them.
We are told that in this age it makes no difference to the religious mind whether you speak of the power that inspires us as God or Jehovah, or the fundamental unity, or ^Hhe scheme of things,'' or the power that makes for righteousness. I regard that as one of the most remark- able statements ever made in connection with this subject by an intelligent speaker or writer. To say that it makes no difference in matters of religion how we think of the
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Supreme Being, is to cancel at once all the meaning that all the centuries have put into the word *' Religion. ' ' Does it make no difference to you or to me whether, when we kneel to worship, we shall worship Almighty God, a personal being, or worship the "scheme of things''? Is there one of you here that ever thought of addressing a prayer to the Unknowable Being or to tho Fundamental Unity! And since we must speak about religion in education, and since we insist upon keeping religion in education, just picture to yourselves a situa- tion like this, where the teacher takes the little boy or the little girl, and says, "My dear child, kneel down there and worship or pray to or implore" — what? "The scheme of things." There are limits to absurdity, but I do not know whether they have ever been discovered.
We are told that the one thing the religious mind has to do is to reach out, physically and mentally and morally, for the highest human values. That is one of the most beautiful phrases that was ever written or spoken or printed — "the highest human values." Its beauty lies precisely in this, that each and every one of us can give the phrase any meaning that we choose. What is the highest human value? What is a value of any kind? What is a human value? What is one of the original human values? What is a higher value, and what is the highest value of all? These things have never been set- tled in any human court or by any human philosophy, and never can be settled except by a revelation from above, which shows us men what our value is and what our lives are worth. Secret prayer has nothing to do with one's full religious duty? Then what has anything to do with religious duties? It is not fifty years since the charge was made against the Catholic Church and its views of religion, that we are external, that we are all for outward form. We, of course, denied that, but every time our worship was mentioned it was mentioned as somethino*
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purely external. It was said that there is nothing under- neath it all, there is no heart to it, there is no soul to it, there is no inner prayerfulness to it, and so on and so on. And now, we are told — ^wonderful fact — at the opening of the twentieth century, we are told that secret prayer — that is, I suppose, prayer of the mind, the prayer of the heart — has nothing to do with the fulfillment of our religious duty. I can only infer that the fulfillment of our religious duty in the mind of those who take this view consists merely in an outward compliance, with what? With something that they happen to like. But that is not the Catholic idea of religion.
Not to multiply citations, let me add just this one more, and I add it out of a sense of fairness. I have been acting the part of critic up to this time, and a critic, if he deserves the name, must present both sides of the case. I want to add just this one phrase more: Eeligion and morality, we are told from the same source, did not come down from Heaven. Now, if the word *^ Eeligion^' here means religion as heretofore described or defined, then that is a perfectly true statement ; for religion as a part- nership enterprise did not come down from Heaven. But now note this further point, namely: so far as religion and morality are described as partnership enterprises for strengthening and refining human character, not only is it true that they did not come down from Heaven; it is also true that they are not going to lead anybody from this earth up to Heaven.
I have noted these various points, not because I think that we have such a very serious matter on hand, but for this reason: I think that education, the educator or the system that will give out such an idea of religion shows himself or itself less worthy of our confidence. You know that with all men and with all women religion is a sacred thing. Whether it be our Catholic faith or some other Christian belief, religion is not a thing to be touched on
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lightly; it is a thing that goes deep down into the heart and into the soul ; and when any one attempts to describe religion he must not only think of his logic and his phil- osophy and his history, but he must also think of the thought and the feeling of the human heart and the human mind in which religion dwells; and to describe religion in that way is to make it of less value. And I will add this, which you will already have anticipated, namely, that if that be the meaning of religion, then we do not stand for religious education in that sense, nor do we stand for any alliance between the schools and religion or between the Church and the school.
You know full well that we mean something else. We mean that the boy and the girl who go through the Cath- olic school shall have been permeated not merely with ideas about religion, not merely with definitions of religious duty, but with the spirit of religion, of shaping their lives in accordance with the law of God. The whole work of this Association culminates in this one result, namely, that religion shall not be an appendix or addition to the studies of the school, but religion shall pulsate like a vital stream through every part of our course of edu- cation, and shall vitalize every element there ; and while it stoops down to accommodate itself to the needs of the little child, it shall gently and gradually lift the mind, the thought, the will of the child beyond the present range of things, beyond the horizon that we survey with our eyes, to a higher world, to a world where dwells that God who is the fundamental unity, but something more ; who is the power that makes for righteousness, but also the power that defines what righteousness is ; who is, if you please, the Author of this scheme of things which we call the universe, and who reveals Himself alike in the circling orbs that we survey in the firmament and in the eyes of the child that sits before us in our Catholic schools.
Edward A. Paoe.
FATIGUE IN TEACHERS
The work of the educator requires from him a large expenditure of power. The * * drawing-ouf process possesses a reciprocal character like the influence which bodies exert on each other in proportion to their mass. Thus we say that the sun attracts the earth ; we may with equal propriety speak of the earth's attractive influence on the sun. So, too, in the educative act, the teaching mind and the child mind exercise a reciprocal attraction. The twenty or forty little intelligences that form the cos- mos whose solar center is the teacher, radiating his intel- lectual beams, are having on him an attractive power cognate to the assimilative faculty of the normal child.
Then, too, classroom work brings into play the teach- er's directive and governing power, as well as the ability to fix attention and impart knowledge. These drafts on his energy are constant.
Besides the actual labor in the classroom, which forms the vital part of his calling, and should get his best capabilities, and find him always in the best possible form, there are the complementary activities — preparation, and correcting and revising written work. Each of these two latter phases of occupation requires painstaking, and this term suggests tiring effort.
The preparation, with the irksomeness of looking up a thousand and one niceties, in regard to which the con- scientious teacher must be ready to offer at least a suggestion, if he would not be continually declaring that he ** really does not know,'' the framing of questions adapted to stimulate thoughtful replies, and the noting of lines of suitable investigation, all this represents patient concentration.
As for correcting theme papers, that, without doubt, is
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the bugbear of the hard-workmg preceptor. Coming as it does, at a time when most workers employed during the day are recreating their forces for the morrow, this thankless but important part of the teacher's work often has a fretting action which should not be allowed to continue.
Fatigue is a recognized factor in physiology. It is the notification, ordinarily given with gentle insistence, that we need repose and refreshment. If the notice is heeded, our strength, in brief space, is renewed, and careful nature has held with a close hand the reserve power and resistant force which will enable her to meet her obliga- tions in the stressful times that come to all her subjects.
Fatigue is the index of expended power. Any organ- ism, good in its kind, has the power to perform, in ample measure, the work for which it is designed, with a mini- mum expenditure of energy.
This principle is well exemplified in nature by that wonderful organ, the heart. In mechanism we have it illustrated in a Corliss engine, for instance. In the human organism, when work and capability are nicely adjusted, facility and effectiveness mark its operations.
When it exceeds the moderate degree induced by the capable and enthusiastic teacher's activities, fatigue is a condition, as we well know, which seriously impedes effec- tive work; and it is in order for us, like careful pedago- gical engineers, to check up the various ways in which energy is excessively or uselessly expended, so that by practicing a wise economy in nerve and brain power we may realize a sustained efficiency.
We will not now stop to draw distinctions between true and false or imagined fatigue; there may be a better chance another time in treating the question of ^ ^nerves.'* It may be well to say just this : there ought to be no room in the true teacher's makeup for anything like weariness
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of his calling; it is a calling which should inspire a life's devotion. True, there may be times of trial ; but given a real capacity for teaching — the vocation — and there always appears the promise of ultimate success for our endeavors.
Under successful conditions and with pleasing environ- ment, teaching is indeed a joy. There is a grateful sense of moderate tire after a solid day in the classroom, and a refreshed fitness for the coming day's duty succeeds. The petty trials of yesterday are forgotten.
The routine of the capable teacher's life passes smoothly, with the occasional ^^ rainy day" that enters all lives. His methods, on study, will show that the efficiency therein represented results in large measure from the intelligent order and system governing the work. In him exceptional mental endowments may be lacking; but successful teaching is there, and that is our goal.
This brings us to one cause of avoidable fatigue in teachers — defective order or system in their work. With some each day brings a new plan of attack, and a new marshaling of forces which should already have been working with automatic regularity. Such educational pilots are continually mislaying their charts and navigat- ing instruments. Some of us have a temptation to despise the small details of preparation ; we are prone to override the restrictive day order, and we do not care to use the little time-saving helps that expedite classwork. We fear to become martinets, or our plea is freshness, originality, variety.
We need feel no surprise if lapses like these have an appreciable effect on the tone of the class, for they do. An impression of irregularity in the teacher influences the pupil to relax order, which in turn calls forth extra effort on the instructor's part. There can be no doubt that order and method in minor things save much energy.
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The class in which little details are provided for, and in which the established order of small prescriptions is strictly maintained, is cleared for action and good teaching.
This care for little things does not at all argue con- straint or narrowness in the teacher ; he may be an enthu- siast and a master in his grasp of a subject, and he is even more likely to be so, freed from this cramping of constant recurrence to lesser affairs which should be run- ning automatically.
There are some teachers who never seem to quite over- take the full requirements of the grade they are teaching. They feel sure of their competence to teach the subjects ; perhaps they have been over them many times and yet they do not seem to get out all that is in these subjects, and they are capable instructors, too. They have a fatigue brought about by their frame of mind. They are, it is true, quite satisfied with their vocation as teachers ; they would be indignant at the bare suggestion of any- thing like tepidity ; and yet they are under the influence of a malaise which has its source in that tendency common to human nature — desire for change. In their hearts lies a yearning to teach other branches ; there is some favorite study which they feel sure would permit the full exercise of their special talents. Their mental attitude, in short, is lukewarmness towards the present duty. Expectancy dilutes concentration. When change does come they look back to slighted opportunities for well-doing which they might have used if with singleness of purpose they had thrown themselves into the work they carried on in such a perfunctory way.
A sure mark of the true educator is his realizing the dignity and importance of teaching the younger children, the great opportunities for doing good therein presented, and, above all, the exceptional skill required to attain the best results.
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Adaptability is a great quality in a teacher, especially in a religious teacher. If he is able to accept whole- heartedly a branch of teaching to which he may be assigned, and act as if he believed that to be well worthy of his best skill, there will be no room for the weariness of half-hearted attempts.
Perhaps the most frequent cause of undue fatigue in the teacher is the presence of a problem of order and discipline. Normally, the classroom should be a small republic, where law and order reign. When, however, there exists that anarchistic condition of chronic disorder, so often adverted to in works on method, for the symp- toms of which so many prescriptions have been written, mental friction and resultant fatigue in the teacher are pronounced features.
Defects of character or inexperience in the instructor may generally be looked for in these cases. It is not that the subjects are uncontrollable but the controlling- power is at fault ; and often a frank recognition of unfit- ness, and a transfer to more favorable conditions are indicated.
Sometimes a condition of brain or nerve fag in the teacher is responsible for lack of power over a class. The inner stress or suffering betrays itself through the eyes. The fire of conscious strength is absent, and an occasional outburst of pent-up feeling, which reacts on the subject, does not tend to inspire respect.
Ill-advised resorts to the rod do not always prove as impressive as intended; the pupils perceive that the instrument of correction is in unpracticed hands; and there is even a sort of entertainment for them in wit- nessing exhibitions of correction which disturb the cor- rector more than the corrected. The rod of Solomon, for its remedial application, requires something of the wisdom of Solomon.
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It would seem like useless repetition of matter familiar to all to call attention to the intimate relation between pure air and effective brain work. Teachers, widely sup- posed to be thoroughly instructed in the physiology of respiration and its relation to health, might naturally be expected to be sticklers for ventilation. Yet it is to be feared that herein as in many matters affecting health — not to avert to other human interests — theory and prac- tice diverge.
We do not all teach in model school edifices, it must be remembered. We often find ourselves in apartments not designed according to the most approved plans as to windows, flues, and other air changing media. Under such circumstances continued care and attention is neces- sary to keep the classroom air in anything like a breath- able condition.
Even in our schools erected in recent years, how many of them are equipped with the ample flues, and the exhaust fans needed to afford really effective ventilation?
Then there is the matter of temperature, closely related to ventilation.
It is perhaps not an unusual experience for one whose duty it is to visit classrooms, to find in some of them a temperature admirably suited to a chicken incubator. Such a hothouse condition would be intolerable to anyone used to active exercise, or having a good blood circulation.
Ventilation and temperature have much to do with fatigue in teachers, and unless we take these facts into consideration and do our best to make them as nearly ideal as is possible under the given circumstances, there remains a cause of avoidable fatigue for which we have ourselves to blame.
We have it laid down in the manuals of advice given to young teachers that overmuch talking in class is to be avoided as fatiguing and unprofitable. Not a few cases of weak lungs have been ascribed to this cause, probably
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with more or less truth, and most of us are quite willing to take it for granted that the practice is objectionable.
Here, however, a good deal depends on temperament and enthusiasm. We have heard the claim advanced that vigorous vocal exercise in the classroom strengthens the lungs; and it has been further stated that these mild- mannered, low-voiced teachers never give their vocal organs sufficient exercise, and so miss the opportunity of becoming finished declaimers.
Many of the old-timers were and are today, trumpet- tongued expounders of doctrine and arithmetic. In the minds of some indeed, this latter subject would seem to be closely identified with the turmoil of the stock exchange or the auction room.
We honor the clarion voices of the veterans. They pro- claim the undaunted spirit of the men who fought through the days when teaching in Catholic schools meant trial, hardship and heroic self-sacrifice. But though we may accord them unstinted admiration, caution is to be used in imitating their vocal exertions. A well-intentioned imitator, belonging to the present generation, has been known, after a strenuous day as ^* class orator,'' to sink into a chair, on the verge of collapse, while the veterans came from their labors with smiling countenances.
There is a popular notion that night is the time when care weighs heaviest on the burdened mind or conscience ; night, and gloom, and the ^^pale cast of thought'' are associate ideas. Now, much might be said of the morning hours as a time taken up with anxious thoughts. We remember once hearing a venerable archbishop in a Lenten sermon speak of the sinner's conscience in the morning hours, and it seemed to us at the time that the holy prelate, on account of his own upright life, could not be expected to know that sinners were likely to be most conscience-stricken at bed-time! But his experience, no doubt, had brought the archbishop into contact with many
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who felt the force and weight of duty most in the morning.
Dr. James J. Walsh, our eminent physician and publi- cist, in an article in the Ecclesiastical Eeview comments on this phenomenon of morning conscience as observable in clergyman and others who have responsibilities and duties devolving on them in the early hours.
Well, the point is this: our teachers, members of re- ligious orders, have, besides their teaching office, a rou- tine of duties in regard to their own spiritual life. These duties and exercises begin in early morning, and are framed to strengthen and console the spirit.
But these pious practices, performed with anxiety, mor- bid introspection, and ill-advised zeal, may be turned into a weariness and weight upon the spirit; and when we wrong-headedly so pervert these beneficent agencies we make at the same time a large draft on our own strength and efficiency.
So it often happens, with such persons, that the stress of early morning is equivalent, in brain-tiring effect, to several hours of stone-breaking. A woe-begone counte- nance is a poor asset with which to begin a day in the classroom.
We are fortunate if our living abode is so conveniently far from the school that we do not feel justified in riding the distance, and so gain the benefit of a bracing walk in the fresh air.
Out-door exercise is one of those things that the teacher cannot neglect with impunity. While moderately tiring it counteracts the numbing tendency of indoor occupation, diverts the mind, and enlivens the circulation.
There are some who profess to see in the summer school a menace to the health of teachers. We should be slow in uttering a misgiving of that sort in view of the acknowledged need of pedagogues to keep abreast of the most approved methods, and to add to their intellectual equipment. Summer schools, at least the kind we have
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in mind, are not sanatoria — none but healthy persons should undertake a serious course at such a school. But with ordinary good health there ought to be real enjoy- ment in a summer session. It really means a change of work for the instructor, for he becomes a pupil for the nonce ; and a change of work means rest.
Again, it usually involves change of scene, a great recuperative agent in many cases. Then, too, a suffi- ciently large residue of vacation is left to satisfy the general run of teachers.
Such are some of the reflections on fatigue in his work from the commonplace viewpoint of the teacher. As to the scientific aspect of fatigue, it has proved a matter of fertile research, principally from the chemico- physiological and pathological sides. The investiga- tions of Mosso and Maggiori in Italy, and of Clouston in Scotland have contributed much to our knowledge of the effects of tire on mind and body. But these matters, for adequate treatment, must be left to the scientific expert ; our purpose in this article is to enforce a rule of health which may be put as follows: the teacher's occupation requires good health as an indispensable qualification.
Good health is largely a question of careful habits; and among the careful habits is the avoidance of unneces- sary fatigue — the conservation of our resources, physical and mental.
Brother Valentine, Xav,
Baltimore, Md.
THE EDUCATION OF THE PEIEST OF TODAY
A priest is supposed to stand between Ms fellow-men and God, so as to reconcile them. His fellow-men may- have sinned and may not care to repent. God may be angry with them, and, to speak in a human way. He may not care to forgive. The priest must arouse in the human element a spirit of sorrow, and he must win the divine over to loving kindness. For without a mutual advance, union is impossible. Penance on the part of the one extreme is futile without the condescension of the other extreme; and all the graciousness of the heavenly Lord will be of no avail without a good disposition in the hearts of men.
To raise his brethren up, the priest must be endowed with a human magnetism ; and to draw his Master down, he must be invested with a divine attractiveness. For, how can he win the hearts of men if he be not akin to man, and how can he captivate the love of God if he be not akin to God? If a priest were only divine he could accomplish his task of reconciliation, by half, on the side of heaven. If he were only human he could effect a sim- ilar result, by half, on the side of earth : because his god- like splendor would enamour the heart of the Deity in the one case ; and his manly amiability would catch and rivet the affections of men and women in the other case. But if he were godly and nothing more, the electric spark of sympathy could never spring from him across to the world and back again. And if he were earth-bom and nothing more, there could be no fellow-feeling between him and heaven. Hence, in the same proportion as the natural exceeds its bounds, the cords reaching upwards weaken; and in the same proportion as the supernatural unduly predominates, the hold on the under-side loosens.
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God sees nothing more in a merely human priest to make Him care for the rest of the race than He sees in the rest of the race itself : and men see nothing more in a merely- divine priest to induce them to turn their thoughts to God than they see in God Himself. No ; there must not only be divine for the Divine; there must not only be human for the Human; but there must be divine and human combined, for both.
History is evidence. I'or centuries the Almighty sat on His throne and saw nothing that He loved for itself below. Melchisedec and Abraham and Aaron of them- selves could not propitiate Him with their offerings. The magnificence of Solomon's Temple, with its gold from Ophir and cedarwood from Libanus and precious stones — what cared He for it all ! AVhat cared He for the running
altars, though the ^icvCar] h^ovpavdv l/cev eXtaaofjLevrj irepl Kairvco ;
or for the harp hymns that wafted supplications to the sky from Mount Moriah! Incense and lights and fires and music; the odor of smoking offerings and the petitions of full hearts — all would have fainted away into thin air and been lost if they had not been vitalized by a higher force: for, humankind with all its apparatus of prayer could not put forth a human priest capable of winning the Deity.
On the other hand, for centuries men walked about the footstool of God and saw nothing that attracted them above. Jehovah in ^Uight inaccessible '' had frightened them. He had indeed been good to mortals ; but majesty overwhelms. He had spoken to them; but the words of the Highest were a foreign tongue. He had shown Him- self; but who could look on Him? He was near by; but His presence embarrassed. In consequence the Jews frequently went apart from Him to find alleviation in nature. And the Gentiles went to extremes in their quest of happiness amongst human attractions, because they could not appreciate the Infinite. Poor Eome! Her
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imperial armies conquered all the world; but she was a slave. Poor Greece! Her golden minds and pens and tongues enriched her ; but their gifts were really dross in the chemistry of Heaven. We still look back with pleas- ure to those twin fountain-heads of literature, sculpture and military excellence. For, all that unaided nature could effect, all that art could produce, and all that knowledge could confer was revealed in the palmy days of Attic culture and imperial Italy. They thought to ^nd satisfaction in created fields of activity ; but in vain : ror, the purpose of life could not be so meagerly circumscribed as that. They would not look up to other fields, because the Almighty with all His circumstance of glory could not put forth a divine priest capable of winning humanity.
But a time was to come. Strange to say, one midnight centuries ago, a baby^s **cry that shivered to the tingling stars'' pierced the heart of God. That heart had been unmoved by sacrificial lavishness ; but now it poured forth a flood of light that bathed the whole of heaven in its effulgence; and in the light a myriad voice rang out: *^ Peace on earth to men of good will.'' As the Child grew. He played and prayed, and worked and learned, and preached and consoled, and suffered and died. His varied activity, united with that first Christmas-night la- ment conciliated God. And why? Because that Priest was divine. Not that His life-work emanated from the God- nature within Him. No; He interceded for us in His human capacity. But all the acts that passed out and up from that created source, though plain and simple and limited in themselvs, were splendidly transformed in the passing, by the radiant Presence that enveloped Him. A dull mote puts on an iridescent glory as it floats up through the light of a diffracting crystal. This compari- son has a suggestion of the deification of Christ's human deeds. The Father above saw in that Priest, Wisdom and Love and Power and Sanctity and Justice and
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Mercy — attributes all as infinitely lovable as His own, because His own. And so, unable to resist the prayer for pardon from such a source, He spoke to the sinful world and said: *^Thou poor little thing — ^with everlasting kindness have I had mercy on thee — with great mercies will I gather thee — Arise! be enlightened — for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.'^
That Child was human, too. As an infant, as a boy, as a youth, and as a man. He had eyes that conquered majestically; lips that smiled and won; a tongue alive with eloquence; an imagination that gave to the New Testament a galaxy of pictures still luminous after nine- teen hundred years ; a heart perfectly tender, enthusiastic and affectionate; a mind like a shining light; a will, indomitable. See how He magnetically caught up the Magdalen in her tearful beauty, and held her in her mys- tical devotion: how the multitude went hungering into the desert after Him, with ears and mouth and heart wide open to the words of Eternal Life: how Andrew spent a whole day with Him in His house, wrapt; then went forth all joy to induce Peter to come and hear.
His Sacramental Presence has been just as effective as His visible was. In the early days of the Church, the halo of supernatural glory that pervaded the Catacombs emanated from Sacred Hosts, hidden away in under- ground tabernacles. The sweet faces of the Christian martyrs, the unconquerable courage, the ecstacy in retire- ment, the exaltation that they experienced in abjection were inspired by the taste of the honeyed sheaf. And when the call came to tread the sands of the arena, their thoughts remained behind them with the snowy loaf and their palates felt again, in seeming, the touch of that mighty morsel. For, from hour to hour, and from day to day, no matter where they were or in what trials they were placed, their affections hovered around the altar and their thoughts haunted the magnetic tabernacle.
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And in our own days the rosy Heart of Christ warms Its millions. His promised help in undertakings, His comfort in sorrow, His assurance of assistance in death have a touch of the human that humankind cannot resist. And so, Christ the God-man Priest, with His double power, is able to reconcile the two extremes.
In the early days of the Church maybe there was not so great a need of the human element in priests ; because the pagan world, already sated with nature in art and vice, was tired of it and would not have been attracted by qualities of a natural kind. Besides, the divine aspect of the Christian dispensation and the divine prerogatives of its priests had the advantage of novelty, and hence needed only to be shown forth in their native splendor, to captivate. Similarly, in the centuries of Faith before the dawn of the modern world the human element could be dispensed with, to a degree, in the sacerdotal character, because the Faithful were held by the sweetness of the God they knew so well. This spiritual tie made the cords of Adam unnecessary. But in our days of Indifferentism, which are not blessed with the charm of the new not with the sweetness of the old in Religion, the prerogatives of nature have a special claim on priests. This cMm is emphasized by the cultivation and information of the masses around us. Especially in this country every man has a sense of his personal standing as a member of the State. Independence has gone along with education, and now instead of having men and women flocking tO us, it is incumbent on us to go after them. That suck a quest requires an Apostle with heart and mind delicately attuned to nature who would gainsay!
Surely then a priest, to be successful, will be the gentlest of the gentle. He will be kind, sociable, polished, conversational, well-informed, learned, alive to the real interests of the day; capable of meeting any religious or ethical adversary, and able to break the bread of the Gospel from the pulpit with a lavish hand. He will
The Education of the Priest op Today 791
believe that all the preparatory study and writing and speaking of which he is capable will scarcely measure him up to the ideal minister that the Church has a right to expect. He will be convinced that his best eloquence is not too good for the divine message to men. He will illustrate, explain, and apply the word of God with tact, solidity, warmth, enlightenment and enthusiasm. Finally he will alleviate the temporal needs of his fellow-men, lighten their sorrows and increase their capital of joy, not only by word of mouth and prayer of heart, but also by deed of hand. And all this he will do to put himself in touch with humankind and win them over, with the help of grace, to the side of God.
As now-a-days, more than ever before, it is incumbent on the priest to make himself one with his fellow-men so as to accomplish their spiritual good, he must take special measures not to allow his divine identity to become obscured in a natural atmosphere. Like St. Paul, it is true, he will wish to become anathema for his brethren, and with Moses he will exclaim: Oh, Lord, pardon this people or blot me out of the book of life ; or like Ignatius, he will be willing to run the risk of losing heaven by exposing himself on earth still longer to the chances of sin, for the salvation of souls. Still he will remember that he is to be godly as well as human; and is to stand fast by the Lord as well as by men. His grace, his power of consecration and his power of forgiving sins must be cherished: and his personal sanctity must be raised by prayer to the level of his official sanctity. Of old when martyrdom was always imminent, there were few natural alleviations indeed, and the divine had to be kept in mind by the minister of God, if he wished to remain faithful. In after times, again, in what are called the days of Faith, the sacerdotal functions were generally exercised in the midst of religious surroundings. For, the whole of Europe was catholic, and piety was in the air. But it is not thus now. The world is commercial, naturalistic,
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indifferent: tliat world in the midst of which the priest is forced to live and move and have his being.
Accordingly he will think to advantage of his divine sonship and participation in the Deity by grace; of his power over God in the Mass, and of his commission to forgive the world. He will endeavor to realize his unspeakable dignity; and stand before God as a god. And the Lord of all will be charmed into forgiveness by this alter ego. In his priestly character he will say: ^'Hoc est enim corpus meum;'' and forthwith the Almighty will place upon the altar for him the price wherewith to buy men's souls. He will say: '^ Absolvo te a peccatis tuis^'; and the offended Deity will have to listen to those words ; and the penitent, already softened into sorrow by his priestly tenderness to him, will have to be let free. Oh what must be the joy of God to look down on such a deified man ; and what must be the satisfaction of sinners to look up at such a human god. The Lord of all knows that this Litermediary has His divine Heart and that he can capti- vate the hearts of men ; and they in turn are sure that the same Peacemaker holds them enchained and that he can mollify their angry Master. Here is the In- Carnation renewed; — or rather call it an In-Deation. For, in the one case the Word had the divine Nature and took the human: in the other case the priest had the human and, in Ordination, took the Divine. Here is the dual life that priests must lead. Nature alone can do no good, and Orders alone will be futile. By exaggerating the import- ance of the one, he will withdraw from God; by over- estimating the other, he will place a barrier between him- self and his fellow-men. But by educating his human powers up to their limit, and by holily exercising his divine faculties to the full, he will liken himself to Christ the Priest, and like Him will save the world.
J. A. McClarey, S. J. Sacred Heart College,
Prairie du Chien, Wis.
THE EDUCATIONAL WOEK OF THE NEW YOEK SISTERS OF CHARITY
With the rapid progress of the Catholic Church in New York, the institute of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Vincent de Paul has, under Providence, gone forward with a not dissimilar energy and perservance.
**When,*' says a recent writer^, *Hhree Sisters took charge of a handful of orphans in New York in the second decade of the nineteenth century,^ no one could have foreseen that in the second decade of the twen- tieth century, five hundred times as many noble women would be working in every phase of humanitarian effort on that same foundation, any more than he could have foreseen that the struggling diocese of a few thousand souls of that time, would, after the same interval, count its children by the million. For the cry- ing need in the little diocese, a small remedy was found. That remedy was vital, however; it had the power to grow, and so as the city has grown and many other needs of humanity have become manifest, the Sisters of Charity have developed their institute, broadened their aims, increased and responded faithfully to the many calls made upon them. ' '
The history of the work accomplished by these Sisters in the various departments of charity, the care of the sick, of the orphan, of the aged, of the insane, would each make an interesting story, but perhaps by far their most important work has been done in the educational field.
A born educator herself, Mother Elizabeth Bayley Seton, their foundress, had made the work of teaching the main feature of her institutite, as it was indeed her
7amcs J. Walsh. '1817.
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own great life-effort. Archbishop Carroll, when con- sulted on the aims of the new congregation, had written to Mother Seton in reply :
^ ^Assure yourself and the Sisters of my utmost solicitude for your advancement in the service and favor of God ; of my reliance on your prayers ; of mine for your prosperity in the important duty of education, which will and must long be your principal, and will always be your partial, employment. A century at least will pass before the exigencies and habits of this country will require, and hardly admit, of the chari- table exercises toward the sick, sufficient to employ any number of the Sisters out of our largest cities ; and therefore they must consider the business of education as a laborious, charitable, and permanent object of their religious duty.''
It is not surprising, then, to learn that in the newly- founded community, when once the novitiate had been formally established, a regular course of studies was appointed for the novices, such as was thought best calcu- lated to fit them for the work of teaching. Mother Eliza- beth Seton devoted herself to this work of training, giving conferences, that covered a wide range of experience, and bore chiefly upon the future work of the novices as teachers. Nor was this training confined to theory. It was her custom to visit the classes frequently, either in person or by deputy, for purposes of observation, noting in the different teachers the presence or absence of abil- ity, intelligent method, and power to create interest in the work. Afterwards, in public or in private, as the case permitted, the faults of the teachers were pointed out to them, or their good work received encouragement. The purpose of this system of supervision and inspection was in practice quite like that of our present model-school.
When in 1826 Bishop Dubois, an eminent scholar.
Educational Woek of New York Sisters 795
became head of the diocese in New York, he took the work of education energetically in hand, convinced that *Hhe catechising of the young was a more important matter than preaching to the grown.'* In the development of the elementary schools he found a powerful aid in the Sisters of Charity, who had begun their work in the growing city some nine years before. *^As a matter of fact, the immense impulse given to Catholic education by the development of the Sisters of Charity was nowhere more clearly evidenced than in New York under Bishop Dubois. ^'^ At this period a strong tide of Catholic emi- gration had set in, and churches were the first need ; then came the urgent demand for Catholic schools. Elizabeth Seton had builded even better than she knew. Just when well-qualified teachers were required for the new schools, although her earthly career was at an end*, her daughters, well equipped for the task, took up the good work that has since found a remarkable development in the numerous parochial schools under their charge; in their Academies; and in their latest undertaking, the College of Mount Saint Vincent. Their standard was high, and as time went on, the whole Catholic body, both clergy and laity, recognizing the powerful impetus thus given to Catholic education, showed their appreciation by generous practical support. ^^The greatest religious fact in the United States today is the Catholic school system, maintained without any aid except from the people who love if^
From the opening of the Orphan Asylum in Prince Street, there was established in connection with it a select school. For a time also the classes of St. Patrick's Parish School were held in a wing of the building; but in 1825 a separate parish school-house was erected on Mul- berry Street near the Cathedral.
»Rev. J. A. Burns, C.S.C., Ph.D.
*Mother Seton died on January 4, 1821.
"Bishop Spalding.
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In 1830 the Sisters replaced the lay teachers in charge of the girls' department in St. Peter's School, Barclay Street. In that year also they opened an academy at 261 Mulberry Street, to provide a more advanced grade of instruction for girls than was afforded in the parish schools.
In 1833 St. Mary's Parish School in Grand Street came under their care; also St. Joseph's on Sixth Avenue. The same year marked the opening of an academy in Grand Street that soon had a roll call of seventy pupils. This academy, St. Mary's, transferred later to East Broadway, was for the rest of the century a deservedly well-patronized high-class school. A little later other academies sprang up in various parts of the City, St. Brigid's, Holy Cross and St. Gabriel's. These academies have their best eulogy in the lives of their graduates, women who have been prominent in New York's social circles, in the educational field, and in the work of private and of organized charity.
In 1834 there were altogether about twenty-five Sisters in the City working out in practice theories since become more familiar ; namely, that the aim of charity should be, not only to relieve, but also to prevent poverty; that *^ education" (to quote a leading medical authority^ *4s the keynote to prophylaxis"; and that Catholic edu- cation makes greatest progress when conducted under the fostering care of teachers consecrated to the work. Thus year after year, as the parochial schools, elementary and secondary, have, through the zeal of pastors and the de- votion of the people, sprung up in and around New York, and as vocations to the Sisterhood have multiplied, the educational work of the daughters of Elizabeth Seton has extended on every side and gives promise of still better things. In the sixty-four parish schools under their care today, nearly five hundred Sisters are engaged
"Doctor J. J. Walsh.
Educational Woek of New York Sisters 797
in the work of teaching. This number is of course exclu- sive of those engaged in academies, and of those con- ducting approved courses of instruction in many of the homes and asylums under the care of the Sisterhood. Besides the High Schools connected with some half dozen of their academies, the Sisters are also in charge of the Girls' Department in each of New York's two free Catho- lic High Schools, The Cathedral and St. Gabriel's. In the first of these well-equipped secondary schools there are more than three hundred pupils drawn from forty parochial schools; indeed a central institution of this kind is becoming every day more and more of a necessity.
The training school, systematically organized more than a quarter of a century ago at the Mother House, Mount Saint Vincent-on-Hudson, to fit the young Sisters for their life-work, has been productive of excellent re- sults. It is only an extension of the cherished idea of that far-seeing foundress, Elizabeth Seton, whose desire was that her religious daughters should be teachers and not mere purveyors of information. Normal institutions are held regularly during the long vacation; and when re- cently, the Catholic University at Washington opened summer-school coures for teaching Sisters, the Superiors quickly availed themselves of the opportunity, realizing the advantages the Sisters would derive from studies pursued at this great Catholic centre of learning.
Academy Mount Vincent-on-Hudson, a leading Catho- lic Academy in New York City for the last sixty-five years, has had its interesting history charmingly told by two of its own alumnae in ''A Famous Convent School,"^ and in ^^The Life of Elizabeth Seton. "«
In response to the growing demand for the higher edu- cation of Catholic young women, the Sisters opened in September, 1910, the College of Mount Saint Vincent.
'Marion J. Brunowe. 'Agnes h. Sadlier.
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An extract from the Announcement Bulletin reads :
*^ Already, Colleges for Catholic young women are doing successful work, but it seems that Greater New York had need of an institution of this kind within its own borders. To this fact the attention of the Sisters has been frequently and urgently called, while the under- taking has the full approval and warm encouragement of His Grace, The Most Eeverend John M. Farley, Arch- bishop of New York.''
*******
^VThe aim of the institution is not only to provide able professors and to employ the most improved methods in giving to its students a liberal education, but also to shape that education according to Catholic principles. Thus do the Sisters hope to form women whose culture, far from divorcing them from duty, will inspire them with deep devotion to it, women whose lives will be a force for truth and an uplift to society. ' '
On the Seton prize medal, awarded yearly at Mount Saint Vincent for proficiency in English Literature, the inscriptions read: ^'Defuncta adhuc fovet ElisabeW ; '^ Altrix Sapientiae Pietas,'' They are a biography in brief of Elizabeth Seton, spiritual mother of the five thousand Sisters of Charity forming the devoted Sister- hoods that have issued from beneath the humble roof- tree raised by her holy hand in the valley at St. Joseph's, Emmitsburg, and dedicated to the service of God and of humanity.
The New York foundation represents largely the edu- cational genius, as well as the educational views and policy of the noble-minded, sweet-souled woman who, it is hoped, shall one day be invoked as another Saint Eliza- beth.
A SiSTEE OF Charity.
Mt. St. Vincent-on-Hudson.
MILITAEY TEAINING FOR ADOLESCENTS
Quite a few of the Catholic preparatory schools of this country are military in character, and in them the uncom- promising discipline of the battalion blends effectively with the benign influence of religion in producing a fin- ished type of Catholic manhood.
The military feature of education, as applied in modern schools, is of recent development. It can not, however, be said to owe its origin to these latter times, for it is as old as our civilization, dating back to the ancient Greeks and Romans.
The Athenian boy, as well as his Spartan neighbor, received a military training. At the age of sixteen he was sent to the State Academy for what was termed his Ephebic education, and there, till he completed his twentieth year, he was a vertiable cadet in a military school. With the Greeks of antiquity the crown and summit of educational endeavor was the military aca- demy, and that institution had, as its dominant and con- trolling purpose, character building and the development of efficient citizenship. Such general utilitarian purposes in education did not in the slighest trammel the free ac- tion of the Muses, for military Greece attained such emi- nence in literature, science and art that for two mil- leniums she has dominated the entire intellectual world.
The modern military school is, none the less, a com- paratively new departure in the onward march of edu- cation. Little more than half a century ago, when the rumbling of impending civil strife was beginning to be heard from Maine to Louisiana, a school in Peekskill took on the military character, and reorganized its system of administration and education under the name of the Peekskill Military Academy. It was the first school of
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its kind in the United States. Not, however, till after North and South had begun the task of ^^Eeconstruction*' did the precedent established at Peekskill in ante-bellum times, find imitators in other schools. Today the number of military schools in the United States is surprisingly large, and a fair number of these are Catholic.
It is true that the intention of the founders of military schools, after the Civil War, was to develop intelligent soldiers that might, should another occasion arise, present *^ Burnished rows of steel," less tortuous and less broken than those that needlessly zigzagged from Bull Eun to Appomattox. But such worthy, patriotic motives no longer influence the establishment or the training of military schools. While endeavoring to make the school a pro- nounced asset for the welfare of the nation, it was plainly seen that no other kind of school could surpass the military academy in moulding a type of man capable of using to the utmost his innate ability.^ The object of the military school is no longer to prepare a perfect soldier, but rather a perfect man. It is, however, only in the Catholic academy, where the positiveness of dogma vitalizes the soldier's positiveness of execution, that the system of education, termed military, realizes adequately the extent of its usefulness in shaping the plastic youth into the well-rounded and harmoniously developed man. It is, then, simply and solely because of its value in seconding and promoting general education that military discipline is adopted by schools nowadays.
There is, indeed, no military virtue which is not also a civic virtue, and the most strenuous military campaign one can enter is the prolonged battle of life. The virtues particularly developed in the military school, obedience, order, neatness, repose, presence of mind, initiative, courage, all these tend to make men better citizens. Hav-
"'The Royal Military College" at Kingston, by Randolph Carlyle, in The Canadian Magazine, Vol. 35, page 128.
Military Training for Adolescents 801
ing been good soldiers in the days of their youth, the graduates of military academies prove themselves better college men, more conscientious merchants, and more energetic in the professions.
The ordinary boarding school has its advantages over the home and the day school. The precautions taken in the boarding school with regard to health and the regular routine of daily living, fashion a much healthier and more industrious type of boy than can be expected from the home with its more or less irregular hours. The benefits of the boarding school are accentuated in the military academy, where exercise is obligatory and most healthful in kind, and where regularity is perfect. The boy in the boarding school is, of course, far removed from the painstaking mother and the punctilious sister; and, in consequence, he is apt to become careless of person and unmethodical in the arrangement of his ef- fects. Such defects cannot, however, find an entrance into a military school, where daily inspection secures a personal cleanliness and tidiness and a love of system which the best-regulated households would find it difficult to equal.2
Boys in a boarding school, isolated so to speak, from the rest of society, are prone to become slovenly in gait and awkward in movement. The training of a military school precludes the possibility of the existence of such defects. The mere wearing of a neat uniform and the attention it usually attracts tend to induce the wearers to improve their personal appearance. Laudable pride and wholesome self-respect are thus developed. Daily drill and frequent exercise in Butt^s Manual force the cadet to throw back his shoulders and breathe in more of the life-giving oxygen that produces the erect figure, elastic step, graceful carriage, and ease of manner by
''"Lost Lesson" by Duffadar, in Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 188, pp. 147-160.
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which the student of the military school can be readily recognized.
American youth, in their homes and in the ordinary schools, get at best only an indifferent training in obedi- ence. A dilatory or partial compliance with an order is often considered all that can be obtained or expected. Military discipline is particularly effective in eradicating a defect of this kind. The cadet submits at once and without questioning to the commands of his officers. Mili- tary training, being impersonal and impartial in its ap- plication, corrects the misdemeanors of its subjects with- out the humiliation and resentment incident to other methods of discipline. For this reason, boys are more readily and cheerfully amenable to strict and rigid dis- cipline under the military plan than under any other form. The restraint of the military academy has some- thing fascinating about it, so, that, under it, a wilful boy unquestionably submits to that under which he would surely chafe if it came from any other source. Should the home training be weak, unsteady or lax, and should the boy, in consequence, exhibit signs of an intractable will and uncontrollable temper, lack of concentration, or inertness, it would prove a godsend, beyond a doubt, to such a youth to spend a few years in a first-class mili- tary academy. The docility of spirit and promptness of execution, nurtured and matured in the ranks of the battalion, are valuable acquisitions in the great life-long competitive struggle which the world forces on the young man once his school days are over.
The American boy, whose opportunities are boundless, to whom all places are open, ought to learn not only to obey with cheerfulness and promptitude, but to command with discretion and to forbear at times with imperturbable self- control. These virtues find ample opportunity for cul- tivation in the military school where the cadet officers, after having learned how to obey with alacrity, acquire
Military Training for Adolescents 803
the habit of commanding with prudence and exercising authority with justice. The sense of responsibility thus developed in the boys themselves is a prominent feature of the military school. This effectual double training of the military school fits its graduates admirably for leadership in their college course, and more especially in their life work.
As schools of the kind under discussion are modeled more or less on the United States Military Academy, so the exemplary spirit of West Point dominates to some extent all such schools in this country. The motto of West Point, too, becomes, in a measure, the motto of every military school floating the Stars and Stripes. ^^Duty, Honor, Patriotism,^' of the Army exemplified so well in the lives of the cadets of the government aca- demy, are, more or less, the ideals of students of all academies patterned after West Point. It is plainly noticed that boys subjected to military discipline develop a keen sense of moral obligation; they partake of the West Pointer's abhorrence of the lie^ ; they love exercise ; intellectual as well as physical; and they make a more than ordinary effort to lead clean, pure, noble lives. The discipline of a military academy and the ennobling influ- ence of the martial spirit become, then, powerful auxili- aries to holy religion in fostering and promoting moral education.
Moreover, there is no loss of time from the school pro- gram, because of the military character of the school ; on the contrary there is, in consequence thereof, a decided gain on the intellectual side.^ With military discipline, changes of place and exercise can be made with much greater despatch than under the laissez faire methods of other schools. When the weather permits, drill may
"Xife at West Point" by H. Irving Hancock, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York and London, Chapter VIII, pp. 144-155.
*"The Training of a Priest" by Rev. John Talbot Smith, LL.D., Long- mans, Green & Co., Chapter IV, pp. 36-48.
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take place in the open air. In that case it proves a most beneficial tonic to the whole human system. Military drill generally comes as a welcome break in the class regulation, and, after it, students return to recitations with renewed vitality and quickened receptive power.
The private military schools of this country are de- signed for youth during the period of adolescence, when the boy is developing from innocent childhood to the ma- turity of manhood. During this transitional and forma- tive period of life, the influence of the Catholic military academy cannot be surpassed for certain classes of youth ; for instance, the haughty, the indolent, the anaemic, the awkward. For such boys in particular military training under Catholic auspices is, as it were, a necessary means to the ultimate end of all educational processes, Mens Sana ac cor sanum in corpore sano,
John J. Tkacy. Clason Point Military Academy, West Chester, New York City.
EDUCATION OF THE LAITY IN THE MIDDLE
AGES.
CHAP. I. THE FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES.
The last stronghold of paganism in the Eoman Empire was the school. Long after the conflict of the pagan State with the Christian Church had subsided the antagonism of the public school continued. At times it was an open fight, again an opposing influence to the struggling Church. The emperors who had first liberated the Church, and emancipated her subjects, did not remove this obstacle to her progress. Those who were of Christian convictions would not interfere with a widespread and effective instrument for the maintenance of the civil power. Their training and the traditions of their ofl&ce made them conservative, loath to interfere with the exist- ing order,^ and they contented themselves with ruling that nothing objectionable to Christians, such as religious ceremonies and rites, be continued in the schools. Pagan instructors were still allowed to teach and very few Chris- tians were decorated with the official titles of rhetoricians and grammarians.^ Even in the new university of Constantinople, founded by Constantino the Great, pagan as well as Christian teachers were officially employed.
The last futile attempt to rehabilitate pagan culture was made through the schools. The Christians who were the most serious obstacle to the scheme were expressly forbidden to hold positions as instructors and even to apply themselves as students.^ The Galileans could not conscientiously worship at the altar of Minerva ; they
^Marion, Histoire de r Eglise. I, 488. Paris, 1906.
^'Lalanne, Influence des Peres de I'Eglise (sur) I'^ducation publique, 58. Paris, 1850.
"Allard, Julien L'Apostat, II, 360. Paris, 1903 (Discussion as to whether Christians as students were forbidden.)
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could return to their churclies and interpret Matthew and Luke, Julian had said, and despite the protests of Chris- tian bishops, some of whom, like Gregory Nazianzen, had been his fellow students at the University of Athens, the ruling prevailed until the champion of the Hellenic gods was himself vanquished.
It was only when the system of State schools had been hopelessly shattered that the Christian Church found her- self free to follow her plans of school organization and development. When the last stronghold of paganism fell in the East, the new stronghold of the Christian educa- tional forces sprang up in the West. The School of Athens was closed by imperial decree in 529, and that same year Monte Cassino opened.* In that same eventful year also the bishops of Gaul met in council at Vaison, and passed their famous decree for the establishment of parish schools throughout their jurisdiction.^
The primitive Church, prompted by her mission to teach all men, very early enlisted the school among her work- ing forces. Her immediate needs, and the circumstances of time and place, tended to foster the types of schools which represented her first educational efforts. To in- struct the converts from paganism the catechetical and catechumenal schools were provided ; to combat the heret- ics and the infidels she encouraged the philosophical schools like those of Origen and Justin Martyr; to pre- pare servants for the sanctuary the episcopal or cathedral schools came into existence. Christian children needed to be instructed in virtue as well as in wisdom, and when free to do so the Church had sought that provision be made for them.
St. Chrysostom furnishes evidence of the decline of primitive fervor in the Christian family of the fourth cen- tury by his contention that the domestic circle was no longer capable of supplying the proper religious and
*Sandys, History of Classical Scholarship. Cambridge, 1906. 'Mansi, Collectio Amplissima Conciliorum, vol. 8. Parisiis, 1901.
Education of Laity in Middle Ages 807
moral training for the children. Pagan society and en- vironment had affected the Christian home, and the care and diligence of former days in instructing the children in virtue had disappeared to an alarming extent. Under these circumstances attendance at the pagan or Jewish schools was unquestionably fraught with the greatest danger for Christian faith and morals, and although he and others of the Fathers had studied under pagan mas- ters, he directed parents to send their children to those who would diligently serve their spiritual as well as their intellectual wants.^
The anchorites and cenobites of the East had responded to this need of the time and undertaken to educate Chris- tian children. Those whom they received as pupils into their communities were not necessarily candidates for the religious life. Some of them were orphans who were given the saving protection of Christian surroundings; others were received from their parents in the presence of witnesses that they might be instructed in Christian vir- tue. No doubt the hope was entertained both by the pa- rents and the monks that the child would eventually offer himself for service in the monastery, but no irrevocable pledge was made at that time either by the child or by the parents. The matter of entering the order or of tak- ing vows was deferred until the subject attained the proper age to decide for himself. The immediate aim in receiving the children was to educate them, to train them to lives of Christian virtue. Those who proved their fitness, and manifested the desire, could later elect to return to the world, to enter the monastery or the her- mit's cell.'^
The monks of the West were also engaged in this phase of education long before the establishment of Monte Cas- sino or the promulgation, in 529, of the great constitution
"Pat. Gr. Migne. T. 47, 349, Adversus oppugnatores VitaB Monasticse. Ad Patrem Fidelem. Lalanne, 167.
^Rule of Basil, Pat. Gr. XXIX; Rule of Paokomius and Commentary, Pat. Lat. XXIII, 70.
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of monasticism, the Benedictine Eule. The most illus- trious examples of this are furnished by the monastic institutions of Gaul, both those of men and of women. In that territory where for two centuries, the third and the fourth, the pagan schools had reached their highest de- velopment and produced some of their ripest scholars, the Christian schools of the fifth and sixth centuries grow in power and increase in number in a degree proportion- ate to the decline of their antagonists. The control of education in those centuries passed into the hands of the clergy, and the work consequently of preparing youth for life in the cloister or in the world was an established in- stitution in the early Church of Gaul.
At various times students were also received into the monasteries who prepared for the secular clergy, but these in the period under consideration were exceptional for the episcopal or cathedral schools amply provided for them. This latter type of school flourished at this time in almost every episcopal city of the Christian world and was especially efficient in the West.^ While the principal aim of the bishops in establishing them was to prepare levites for the sanctuary, other students were not denied admission. Judging from the curriculum followed in the early episcopal schools of Gaul, and from the number of lay teachers engaged (sometimes these were converted rhetoricians), a considerable portion of the students would seem to have had no intention of entering the clerical state. Converts were instructed there and, in Merovingian days, when the bishops became proprietary lords with the duty of providing education for all, it was but natural that they should first equip their own school for general educational purposes. The famous schools of Aries, Paris, Poitiers, Bourges, Clermont, Vienne, Chalons-sur-Saone and Gap were well attended when the State schools fell into decline.^
«Cubberley, Syllabus of Lectures, I. 59. New York, 1902. (In 614 there were 112 bishoprics in Prank land alone.) »Denk, Geschichte des Gallo-Frankxscb Unterrichts, 191. Mainz, 1892.
Education op Laity in Middle Ages 809
The parish also supplied an important educational in- stitution. The decree of the Council of Vaison, 529, that pastors should establish schools and undertake the in- struction of the young, is significant not only for the ter- ritory immediately concerned but for the reference it makes to the custom already prevailing in Italy and there producing good results. It had been fruitful in fostering vocations to the priestly state, and that undoubtedly was one of the chief aims of the bishops of Gaul in adopting them. There is a warning in the canon, however, that those who desire to take up the married state be given all freedom to do so. The canon follows :
'^Hoc enim placuit ut omnes presbyteri qui sunt in pa- rochiis constituti secundum consuetudinem, quam per to- tam Italiam satis salubriter teneri cognovimus, juniores lectores, quantoscumque sine uxore habuerint, secum in domo, ubi ipsi habitare videntur, recipiant: et eos quo- modo boni patres spiritaliter nutrientes, psalmos parare, divinis lectionibus insistere, et in lege Domini erudire contendant: ut et sibi dignos successores provideant, et a Domino praemia aeterna recipiant. Cum vero ad aeta- tem perfectam pervenerint, si aliquis eorum pro camis fragilitate uxorem habere voluerit, potestas ei ducendi conjugium non negetur.''^^
While this text is of the greatest historical importance for recording the official sanction of the presbyteral or parish school, the impression must not be taken that no other evidences remain of earlier institutions of this kind. In the second century a parish school was maintained at Edessa, where the priest Protogenes taught little children reading, writing, singing, and the elements of Christian Doctrine.^^ Nor does the text imply that no parish schools existed in that part of the Church, for in the pre- ceding century one is found at Rennes (480) which does
"Mansi, Coll. Amp. Concil. vol. 8.
"Stockl, Geschichte der Padagogik, 78. Mainz, 1876.
810 The Catholic Educational. Eeview
not seem to have been monastical in organization, and whose curriculum embracing reading, writing, arithmetic and religion, indicates its elementary character.^^
With the spread of the monks the cloister eventually supplied the chief means of education for the laity. The children of the nobility and of the poor attended these schools for purely educational purposes, and many of them at the completion of their courses returned to their homes. They came at times in great numbers to the mon- asteries of men and women, and their formation con- sumed nearly the entire time of the religious. Muteau says that at Aries, where two hundred nuns were occu- pied in copying MSS., open school was kept for the neighborhood (ecoles ouvertes). At Laon also the learn- ed abbess^ St. Austrude, ^^est represente comme ay ant consacre sa vie a la culture des lettres, ' exercens se etiam in magisterio doctrinae.' ''^^ Yet these nuns were dis- couraged in this practice by St. Caesarius of Aries who gave them their rule. They followed in their community life one of the earliest forms of the formal cloister,^* and the bishop deemed it wise to exclude from their houses the children of the nobility or of the poor who came merely for their education. The prohibition would seem to indicate that the children could be provided for else- where. '^Et si fieri potest, aut difficile, aut ulla unquam in monasterio infantula parvula, nisi ah annis sex aut septem, quae jam et litteras discere et ohedientiae possit ohtemperare, suscipiatur, Nohilium filiae sive ignohili- um, ad nutriendum aut docendum, penitus non accipi- anturJ'^^
Gaul was a responsive soil to the seed of monasticism. Since the foundations of Liguge and Marmoutier by St.
"Denk, 194.
^*Muteau, Les Ecoles et Colleges en Provence, 14. Dijon, 1882.
"Cath. Encycylopedia, "Cloister."
"Regula ad Virgines: Pat. Lat. LXVII, 1108.
Education of Laity in Middle Ages 811
Martin of Tours in the fourth century, and the later or- ganization of monastic life by John Cassian, the cloister institutions had spread with remarkable rapidity. The monks were not only numerous, as when, for instance, two thousand accompanied the remains of St. Martin to the tomb, but deeply spiritual and enthusiastic to place with- in the reach of others the blessings which they enjoyed in this new form of spiritual endeavor. They received their spirit as well as their organization largely from Cassian who learned the principles of the cenobitic life from the celebrated Fathers of the desert. He had lived with the monks at Bethlehem and the hermits in Egypt, and had come into close contact with St. Chrysostom, having been ordained a deacon by him. He embodied in his rule many of the principles of the Eastern ascetics and perpetuated their traditions in regard to education. His Institutes were used by St. Benedict in drawing up the constitution of his order, and his Collations were recommended by him as spiritual reading for the monks.^^ Cassian 's work was in short for Gaul what Benedict's was at a later date for the monasteries of Europe.
The claims for the extent of education provided by the religious of these early cloisters, those of men and of women, and for the laity as well as for the clergy, do not seem extravagant when the customs prevailing in the Orient are remembered, and the fact recalled that Cassian desired to propagate them in the West. He had lived in the Eastern and Egyptian monasteries as guest and tem- porary pupil of the great Fathers of the spiritual life then in charge, and witnessed the good effects of the cus- tom then in vogue of allowing the laity to be present at these instructions, for besides the children who attended for their education many of their elders visited them for retreats and although not forming part of the community
" Pat. Lat. XLIX, L.
812 The Catholic Educational Eeview
enjoyed the advantage of instruction in the principles of the spiritual life.^"^
The outer and inner departments of the monastery came to be recognized at an early period in the history of monasticism in Gaul. There was no legislation, it is true, in regard to the separation of the classes of students, but the prohibition of St. Caesarius shows that both class- es of children presented themselves for instruction, and they were practically designated. He had allowed the nuns to accept the ^'ohlati/' those who were offered as future subjects of the monastery, and prohibited the re- ception of those whose purpose there was merely educa- tional. The fact that his successor Aurelian was obliged to settle the age for the reception of children, making it ten years instead of six or seven, incidentally attests the eagerness of parents to place their offspring with the re- ligious, some even desiring to do so with their infants.^^
The Rule of St. Benedict appeared about 530. and its more than rapid circulation in the monastic world evi- dences at once the wide diffusion of the monasteries, the eagerness of the monks for a more systematic life and better organization, and the attention of all to education. It is said that in twenty-five years it had affected all Christian Europe. The educational significance of its rapid spread is better realized when it is recalled that St. Maurus, and others like St. Columbanus who were af- fected by it, interpreted its provisions in favor of more extensive literary and educational pursuits.^^ Although the Rule does not speak of the cloistral school explicitly, nor of the lay and clerical students, it mentions the work of education and the requirements necessary in the prepa- ration of boys for the order. Certainly all who applied were not accepted as subjects and it was not long before
"Commentary on Rule of Cassian in Migne, Pat. Lat. up supra. "Denk, 196. "Sandys, I, 453.
Education of Laity in Middle Ages 813
the time of probation was extended by ecclesiastical law, making it necessary for the young of both sexes to under- go a period of trial of at least one year before they could be regarded as members of the novitiate.^^
The remarkable growth and prosperity of the monas- teries continued throughout the whole of the sixth cen- tury. Nowhere on the Continent is this better shown than in Gaul. In that century owing to the impetus given by St. Maurus, the disciple of St. Benedict, there were eighty foundations in the valley of the Saone and the Khine, ninety-four from the Pyrenees to the Loire, fifty- four from the Loire to the Vosges, and ten from the Vosges to the Ehine.^^ The Benedictine movement then advanced to other countries: St. MartiQ of Deume carried the new institution to Spain, and St. Augustine to England. The monasteries of North Britaiu had long be- fore thrived and grown even in the fifth century to great proportions.^^ Italy had seen many other foundations be- fore that of Monte Cassino — twenty-two monasteries in the City of Eome accepted the Benedictine Eule almost as soon as it appeared — and Africa, St. Augustine attests, was already in possession of her monasteries as well as episcopal schools.^^
Ireland at this time was a veritable land of schools and scholars. In the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries her monasteries were world renowned as institutes of learn- ing, and in the seventh and eighth a constant stream of students came from the Continent to learn theology. Scripture, and classic literature from the great Irish scholars.. Famous for their knowledge of Latin and Greek, the Irish schools were preparing in this epoch for that generation of teachers who were shortly to invade
^oEpistles of S. Gregory the Great, I, 50 in Pat. Lat. XLIX. ^^Marion, II, 138.
^Drane, Christian Schools and Scholars, I, 48. London, 1867. ^Marion. I. 573.
814 The Catholic Educational. Eeview
Europe, and distinguisli themselves in court and convent, in public and private schools. ^^
The foundations of Armagh by St. Patrick, of Kildare by St. Brigid, were emulated both as schools and as mon- asteries by the efforts of St. Enda of Aran, St. Finian of Clonard, St. Brendan of Clonfert before St. Comgall founded the famous school of Bangor or St. Columbanus led his Irish monks to Luxeuil in France, and Bobbio in Italy. From the latter we have the terse description of the daily work in every monastery: ^^Ergo quotidie je- junandum est, sicut quotidie orandum est, quotidie la- horandum, quotidieque est legendum/^ Dr. Healy writ- ing of the monasteries generally, and of the Irish in par- ticular, says:
** Fasting and prayer, labor and study, are the daily tasks of the monks in every monastery. How patiently and imselfishly that toil was performed the history of Europe tells. The monks made roads, cleared the for- ests, and fertilized the desert. Their monasteries in Ire- land were the sites of our cities. To this day the land about the monastery is well known to be the greenest and best in the district ; and it was made fertile by the labors of the monks. They preserved for us the literary treas- ures of antiquity; they multiplied copies of all the best and newest works ; they illuminated them with the most loving care. They taught the children of the rich and poor alike; they built the Church and the palace; they were the greatest authors, painters and architects, since the decline of the Eoman Empire. They were the physi- cians of the poor when there were no dispensary doctors ; they served the sick in the hospitals and at their homes. And when the day's work was done in the fields or in the study, they praised God, and prayed for men who were un- able or unwilling to pray for themselves. Ignorant and
2*0zanam, A. F. Oeuvres, v. 4, p. 528. Paris (1872.)
Education of Laity in Middle Ages 815
prejudiced men have spoken of them as an idle and use- less race. They were in reality the greatest toilers, and the greatest benefactors of humanity that the world has ever seen/'^^
Patbick J. McCoKMICK.
^^Healy, Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars, 102. Dublin, 1893.
MATERIAL CONDITIONS.
The best results in teaching, especially in the grades, can be secured only when favorable conditions obtain. While it is eternally true that a really efficient teacher can do much, even in the face of difficulties, it is not less true that the right material conditions in the classroom are of tremendous importance to the novice and lessen to a very considerable extent the labors of the more ex- perienced pedagogue. Indeed, it is the latter who is generally the more insistent on securing right material conditions, for he knows, often from bitter experience, that everything that tends to eliminate friction and fa- cilitate the real work of the classroom is a powerful aid to him in the discharge of his professional duties.
With these facts in mind, it is my purpose in this paper to touch upon certain material conditions which are of special moment in any discussion of class work. Many of the things I have to say will doubtless be considered obvious; but there are some things so obvious that we often fail to see them. At all events, in these days of psychological analysis and transcendentalism in the dis- cussion of classroom methods, it may prove refreshing, if nothing else, to get away for a few minutes from the multitude of fads and schools and systems and dwell upon a few elementary facts regarding the externals of teaching and study.
A primary consideration is due the classroom equip- ment. It is not the teacher's business to buy school furni- ture, but it most emphatically is his business to see that the janitor does his duty. Desks that wobble, seats that creak, doors that can be kept closed only by stuffing bits of paper into the jambs are things that no conscientious teacher should tolerate. Things like these are the fruit-
Matekial Conditions 817
ful source of disorder, worry and waste of energy. They exert a bad influence on the mental habits of the children and bring to the teacher premature wrinkles and un- merited gray hairs.
The general planning his campaign, the carpenter ex- amining his tools, the musician tuning his instrument are models for the teacher. Before the actual work of the day begins, the teacher should see to it that all things are ready. Inkwells must be filled, a sufficient supply of chalk must be in an accessible place and the humiliating necessity of sending to a brother teacher for the loan of an eraser must be obviated. The children, on their part, must be taught to have their books, pencils and other class necessities close at hand and in serviceable order.
*^Shun delays, they breed remorse," wrote the poet- priest, Robert Southwell. We can shun delays to a great extent by foreseeing what we shall need for the day's work in the classroom and making our plans accord- ingly. If, in the course of our lesson in United States History, we need a map of South Carolina, it is very poor policy to think of getting it only when the lesson has been actually begun. At the very beginning of the day the map should be at hand — labeled, if necessary, ^^ Exhibit A," though at the same time it need not be conspicu- ously displayed to attract the attention of the pupils at an inopportune time. An example of how not to do things in this regard was furnished by a teacher who, after securing a set of the Perry pictures, found her- self seriously handicapped in her work simply because she never could learn to make her selection and arrange- ment of the prints before the class period had begun.
One of the most important conditions for class effi- ciency is the matter of ventilation. Some teachers abso- lutely ignore the closed windows — until after an hour or so, when they begin to wonder why it is that they suffer so much from headaches and why the children are alter-
818 The Catholic Educational Eeview
nately listless and fidgety. At the other extreme are the teachers who believe blindly in the virtues of fresh air — even when the thermometer flashes a danger signal — and expose the children to needless draughts and cruel phy- sical discomfort. Other teachers again, with the best intentions in the world, seemingly never can learn that the most effective means of securing proper ventilation is to open the windows at both top and bottom, even if only the distance of a span. The recess time, of course, offers an opportunity for a thorough change of air and a com- plete ventilation of the classroom.
The golden age in school management has not yet ar- rived. When it does come the teacher will be free from all distraction, and only then. We must, perforce, resign ourselves to the inevitable and welcome, with at least permissive will, the unavoidable noises that strain our tempers and jar our nerves. At the same time, by care- fully looking ahead and learning from experience, we can do much to lessen the evil of distrations, both for ourselves and our pupils.
If noise, for instance, interferes with our work, the obvious thing to do is to eliminate, whenever possible, the occasions of noise. That phrase, '^whenever possible, '' covers a multitude of sins ; but while it is true that many noises are beyond our power to prevent, there are others which, if we are quite frank with ourselves, we shall find to be of our own causing. These we can remedy by de- stroying their occasions. As for the inevitable noises — from the clattering streets or the buildings in course of construction — we may find it advantageous to shift our schedule slightly so that the annoyances may come at the least undesirable time. This simple device has often been used by teachers wise in their generation.
One fruitful source of distractions in the classroom are the exits and entrances of pupils — sometimes our own, sometimes those from other classes. While excep-
Material Conditions 819
tions are bound to occur, it may -be said in general that for this intolerable coming in and going out during school hours there is absolutely no excuse. Sometimes the prin- cipal of the school is chiefly to blame, as was the case in a school where every morning a boy was sent from class to class to get from each teacher a list of absentees. The boy emphasized his importance by wearing squeak- ing shoes and developing astonishing comedy talent. His entrance, in the middle of a recitation, was the signal for complete distraction for every one in the class; and while the teacher, with not the best grace in the world, wrote a list of names on the proffered tablet, the chil- dren smiled blissfully at the visitor's elastic neck and mirth-provoking grimaces. Not until the boy's foot- falls— and they were pronounced — ^had died away down the corridor, could anything be done in the classroom; and even then it frequently meant starting the lesson all over again.
Good order and attention in class are to some extent determined by the condition of the blackboards and the nature of the decorations on the walls. Blackboards covered with scrawlings and scribblings, with harrowing reminders of yesterday's lesson in arithmetic, with the injudicious maiden efforts of budding Giottos and Millets do not contribute to that concentration of mind and unity of mental effort which, even under ideal conditions, are so difficult to secure. Gaudy posters, curling chromos and pictures hung awry are not only in bad taste; they distract the children at all times and exert a pernicious effect on their plastic characters.
The matters of postures and carriage of teacher and pupils are elementary topics indeed, and yet they have an importance which can never been adequately stressed. The pedagogical martinets — may they rest in peace! — who used to insist upon a uniformity of position at all times and a definite angle for every book during the
820 The Catholic Educational Eeview
reading lesson, little realized that they themselves estab- lished conditions that begot in their pupils weariness and disgust and covert rebellion. Yet there are teachers to- day who have trouble chiefly because, by their own rest- lessness and lack of composure, they give the impres- sion that they are looking for trouble. St. de la Salle, the founder of the Christian Brothers, indicated twelve vir- tues of the good master; among them are gravity and reserve. Both are really virtues, in art, in literature and in life, and notably in the teaching profession.
Would that we could remember and realize that we are all day long before so many pairs of restless, observant little eyes that our every move and our every posture are noted and at times made the subject of not particularly favorable comment! "Would that some lecturer at sum- mer institutes, instead of devoting all his time to Norse mythology or the status of elementary schools in the Philippines, might take up this matter of personal de- portment and present to the assembled teachers the ac- tual facts in the case! Sadder but wiser would that audience be.
It is necessary that both teacher and pupils move about the room, and therefore it is necessary that both teacher and pupils should know how to walk. Another painfully elementary matter is this, but one, I am sorry to say, too often disregarded. The more obvious caricatures of the act of walking I prefer not to discuss; but there is a particular form of misrepresentation that is all too prev- alent. I mean moving about on tip-toe. A teacher some- times fancies that when the children glide about like so many stealthy, comic-opera villains good order is ob- served and the virtue of silence reigns. Better results might be obtained by having the children crawl on their hands and knees ; but the real objection to both methods is that both are unnatural. A normal, healthy boy walk- ing on tip-toe is about as much at home as a normal, healthy cat walking on walnut shells.
Material Conditions 821
^ ' Shame itself ! ' * hissed Lady Macbeth in the ear of her troubled and vision-seeing spouse. ^^Why do you make such faces ? ' ' Has not the query a definite and pertinent application to many teachers who, though composed and reserved so far as gestures and bodily movements are concerned, yet sin grievously against decorum and grav- ity in their unfortunate habit of facial contortion! Con- trol of the facial muscles is certainly one of the most important of what we call the material conditions of successful teaching. Unconsciously the teacher acquires the habit of wrinkling the forehead, even the nose; of pursing the lips, of opening the eyes too wide — in gen- eral, of total lack of self-control. Vanity itself ought to cure us of this defect, for the man or the woman who lacks facial repose is never beautiful. Through the win- dow of the countenance the soul shines forth, we are told ; but I am loth to believe it, for through some faces that twitch and gyrate shines an unlovely thing.
While touching upon the material conditions dependent on personality of teacher and pupils, I think it oppor- tune to say a word concerning tone and manner of speech. And here more must be said of the teacher rather than of the pupils, for if the teacher's voice is low and musical and under control, the children will unconsciously acquire some of its most desirable characteristics. Distinctness of articulation often has to be taught specifically ; but in general the other essentials of conversational voice cul- ture can be imparted indirectly.
The teacher who grumbles deep in his throat and he who talks so loud that, apparently, he fancies he is ad- dressing the mob from the bema in ancient Athens, both are offenders. The tendency to talk too loud is, how- ever, the more prevalent. Besides being a waste of energy and sometimes an overt act disturbing the public peace, this fault has an irritating effect on a class and betrays lack of self-control. It may spring from nervous-
822 The Catholic Educational Eeview
ness or from over- enthusiasm or from a zeal not accord- ing to knowledge; but whatever its causes, it indicates a weakness of character, an absence of poise.
Worst of all is the habitual use of the nagging tone. Some teachers I know could contribute splendid speci- mens for an illustrated lecture on this subject. They may actually be saying, ^^Very good, Willie, '^ or *'Your work has pleased me very much"; but the tone in which they speak, the peculiar inflections they use, seem to indicate that what is really in their mind is something like this : ^ ^ I am weary unto death of everything and every- body; I suppose you're doing the best you can, but your best isn't worth much, and I feel sure that you're going to do something dreadful at any moment. ' ' On the other hand, even a severe reprimand given in tones bespeaking the presence of a cheerful human being will have its de- sired effect and yet leave no sting.
The final material condition is regularity. A good teacher is not only as regular as the clock — he is more regular than most clocks. The perfection of the holy virtue of obedience said to reside in leaving a letter half formed or a syllable half uttered should find its prac- tical application in the work of the classroom. To begin a lesson promptly and to end it promptly, to assemble and to dismiss the class at approximately the scheduled second — all this is perhaps an ideal; but it is a very worthy ideal. A more persistent effort to tend to it, if ideal it be, would save untold annoyance to ourselves and to others.
Leslie Stanton.
St. Mary's College, Oakland, Cal.
CARDINAL GIBBONS MEMORIAL HALL.
At the close of the meeting of the Board of Trustees on Thursday, October 12, the cornerstone of the Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall was laid by His Eminence, the Chancellor of the University, in the presence of a large gathering of bishops, priests and people representing nearly every diocese and every State of the Union. This ceremony formed the central feature in the academic cele- bration of the CardinaPs jubilee, and, in a certain sense, the national celebration also, since the people in all parts of the country have contributed towards the building and, while aiding the development of the University, have paid to the Cardinal the most acceptable tribute that could have been offered. It is extremely gratifying to him that the permanent memorial of his priestly and cardinalitial jubilee should take the form of a Hall on the grounds of the University and especially that it should be devoted to the service of our Catholic people as a residence for lay students.
On the other hand, this occasion is significant as show- ing that our people, as time goes on, have more accurate ideas of what is at once appropriate and practical in con- nection with such celebrations. They have come to realize the value of education for its own sake and its necessity for the cause of religion; and they understand that the most fitting tribute to personal worth is the furtherance of those large beneficent designs for which the recipient of their tribute has lived and labored. It was the Middle Ages, the Ages of Faith, that gave Oxford and Cambridge those halls and colleges which have grown more beautiful during the centuries and which in their outward forms are still the most graceful expression of the academic spirit. They bear the names or perpetuate the memory
824 The Catholic Educational Eeview
of men who were equally devoted to tlie Church and to learning. Most of them were ecclesiastics, some were bishops, all were men of sound practical sense. They were concerned for the interests of religion not merely in one parish or in one diocese but in all England, or rather in the whole world, since the universities of that day were in the highest degree cosmopolitan. Thus all the nations of Europe were the beneficiaries of the great English founders — of Merton and Balliol, of Wykeham and Bal- sham and Gonville ; and the names of these men will live long after the last trace of the structures which they built has disappeared.
What is more important, there is still strong in the Catholic Church that love of intellectual and spiritual things which created the universities of old. It was mani- fested at the inception of the Catholic University and it has proven its efficacy at each new phase of the Univer- sity's growth. It has never been more timely or more energetic than in projecting and constructing the Gib- bons Memorial.
It is less than a year since the erection of this Hall was decided upon, and barely six months since the work be- gan. That it has advanced so rapidly is due chiefly to the activity of the Association which had charge of the under- taking and which included in its membership prominent representatives of the clergy and laity, with the follow- ing officers :
President and Treasurer^ Rt. Rev. Owen B. Corrigan, D. D., Auxiliary Bishop of Baltimore ; Corresponding Secretary, Very Rev. George A. Dougherty, D. D., Vice-Rector of the University.
Executive Committee: Baltimore — Samuel S. Bennett, Charles J. Bonaparte, Rev. Fred. Bott, C. S. S. R., Joseph W. Brooks, Rev. M. F. Foley, Frank Furst, Michael Jenkins. Je- rome M. Joyce, Philip C. Mueller, Rev. James A. Nolan, Thomas O'Neill, T. Herbert Shriver, William 0. Sullivan, Rev. John T. Whelan, James R. Wheeler, George Yakel. Washington — D. J.
Caedinal Gibbons Memorial Hall 825
Callahan, Aidan Dillon, O. H. P. Johnson, Patrick J. Haltigan, George E. Hamilton, Kev. J. D. Marr, Rev. J. R. Matthews, Rt. Rev. James T. Mackin, P. J. Nee, Joseph E. Ralph, Rt. Rev. Dr. William T. Russell, B. F. Saul, Nicholas H. Shea, P. C. Sulli- van, J. Selwin Tait.
In February last, the Association sent out this appeal : The Golden Jubilee or fiftieth anniversary of the ordination of Cardinal Gibbons to the priesthood occurs this year, also the twenty-fifth anniversary of his elevation to the august senate of the Apostolic See. His countless friends and admirers be- lieve that these events should not go unrecognized, and desire to enroll your good-will and your personal co-operation in offering to our eminent fellow-citizen a tribute worthy of his high oflQce and of the place which he has so long filled in the life of our nation.
It is proposed to erect on the ground of the Catholic Univer- sity a Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall of residence for lay students^ a nohle edifice that shall forever hear his name, and while rendering the most useful service to a rapidly growing school, shall remind all who come after us that we appreciated fully and in his own day the unique influence of Cardinal Gih- hons in our national life. It is known that he cares for no other recognition, hut is willing that the many friends, hoth in and out of the Church, who in his long career as a minister of Jesus Christ and an American citizen have profited hy his dis- courses, his writings, or his example, should unite to erect an edifice that shall stand hefore the youth of our country for the highest education, the purest religion, and the most exalted patriotism.
Since its opening in 1889 the chief interest of Cardinal Gib- bons has been the Catholic University of America. He was the leader in its foundation, and is now its head and governor. In his mind as in that of the American Catholic hierarchy whom he represents, this great school, the official work of our hier- archy and our people, is destined to render the highest services to the Catholic Church in the United States, not only in the defence and illustration of religious truth, but also as a public monumental witness to the immemorial love of learning that
826 The Catholic Educational Eeview
characterizes our Catholic people and their patriotic devotion to the moral and social welfare of our country.
It may be truly said that in respect of the teachings and spirit of Catholicism, the loyalty of Catholics to this glorious republic, and the perfect sympathy between our American de- mocracy and the Catholic Church, Cardinal Gibbons has bee^ for fifty years a foremost educator of the American people. He has dispelled immemorial prejudice, has destroyed in no small measure the roots of fear and suspicion, and has freed the American people from many anti-Catholic delusions that held them in mental bondage. On the other hand he has in- spired by word and example his Catholic fellow-citizens to lives of the highest virtue, and has never failed, in season and out of season, to impress upon them the majesty of the American State and its rights to our utmost love and devotion.
When Cardinal Gibbons began his priestly career there were scarcely three thousand priests in the vast territory of the United States, and the Catholic layman had almost to apologize for being a member of the ancient faith, whereas now there are over sixteen thousand priests, and the wisest statesmen admit that the Catholic Church is the nation's chief bulwark against the many evil forces that are threatening the peace, if not the existence, of the world's greatest republic.
In this happy development of Catholicism Cardinal Gibbons has had a large and important role. While never failing to em- phasize the great substantial truths of religion and their end- less service to the common welfare, he has devoted his best thought and endeavor, by ceaseless preaching of the Word of God, by personal instruction and by books of unparalleled suc- cess, to making known the beauty, the power, and the charm of our immemorial Catholicism, its visible roots in the Gospel and in human nature, its beneficent career in the history of mankind, its sun-like vigor in creating and sustaining new and useful institutions.
For fifty years he has moved with unbroken success as an official exponent of Catholicism and has earned at all times not only the love and respect of his own fellow-citizens, both in and out of the Church, but also the commendation of the highest
Cakdinal Gibbons Memorial Hall 827
authority in the Church itself. As a priest of God he has lived in this half century a blameless and edifying life, has daily brought to the Catholic people all the divine consoling ministrations of their religion, has preached without ceasing and in its simple purity the saving Gospel of Christ, and in the fulfilment of this ministry has won the love and admiration, not only of his Catholic fellow-citizens, but of a multitude of other right- minded men. As a citizen, he stands second to none for con- stant and active devotion to the principles and the spirit of American democracy. He has never tired of inculcating on all the duty of patriotism not only in eloquent and forcible lan- guage, but by his own example, in many acts of public service, in spirited defence and ardent praise of our American common- wealth, and in timely warning of the dangers that beset our path when we abandon the teachings and the example of the founders of the nation. As a man, his plain unassuming man- ner, his frugal habits and simple life, his industry, self-restraint and regularity, offer to all, and especially to our American youth, a model that cannot be too highly commended amid the acknowledged excesses of our civilization. His love of the lowly and oppressed, and his readiness to defend their cause, have won world-wide recognition, likewise his steady insistence on equity and fair play in all the economic and social relations of our American life.
As a bishop he has administered with paternal mildness the parent see of our American Catholic heirarchy and has main- tained and confirmed its glorious Catholic traditions of re- ligion and patriotism that began with Archbishop Carroll, and it is hoped will never suffer an eclipse. His house has been ever hospitably open to his episcopal brethren from every quarter of the world, and with equal generosity his good offices have been always at their disposal. It is under Cardinal Gibbons that took place the most striking events of our Catholic public life in the latter quarter of the nineteenth century, the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore, the First Centenary of the foun- dation of our hierarchy, the first Catholic Congress, the founda- tion at Washington of the Catholic University and the estab- lishment of the Apostolic Delegation. In countless ways he
828 The Catholic Educational Eeview
has co-operated with the hierarchy of the United States for the welfare of religion, and by his prudence and experience, as well as by his insight and sympathy, has rendered to all his brethren of the episcopate, individually and collectively, services whose number and importance the Holy Spirit alone could reveal. Meanwhile he has consecrated to their great tasks one quarter of the American heirarchy, and has ordained about two thou- sand priests, nor has this exhausted his devotion to the Catholic clergy, for he has found time in his busy life to write for them one of the most beautiful books on the priestly life.
As a Cardinal of the Holy Koman Church, besides earning the love and approbation of two of the most remarkable suc- cessors of St. Peter, he has represented with equal dignity and success the general interests of our American Catholicism, and on all occasions has so borne himself as to leave room only for praise. It was, indeed, easy for him to continue always af- fable, gentle, and approachable ; to remain unchanged in priest- ly life and spirit; to retain his modest and toilsome habit of life, but it gave to all, both Catholic and non-Catholic, par- ticular pleasure when it was seen that the leader of the Ameri- can Catholic hierarchy always spoke and acted with becoming tact, with judicious acumen, with a broad discriminating sense of principles and circumstances, with Catholic frankness, but also with patriotic ardor, while no one could mistake his char- itable anxiety not to wound unnecessarily the feelings of our non-Catholic fellow-citizens, so well and widely known to him in the fifty years of his priestly ministrations.
In his eloquent discourse, "The Church and the Age," Arch- bishop Ireland rightly says that "the work of Cardinal Gib- bons forms an epoch in the history of the Church in America. He has made known, as no one before him did, the Church to the people of America. ♦ ♦ * Through his action the scales have fallen from the eyes of non-Catholics and prejudices have vanished.'' Kecently, on his death-bed. Archbishop Ryan said to the Cardinal, "I am now, as I ever have been, profoundly convinced that you are the instrument of Providence for the promotion of every good thing for our Church and our Coun- try." And a prominent writer only echoes the conclusions of
Cakdinal Gibbons Memobial Hall 829
these distinguished prelates, when he says that "Cardinal Gib- bons has been heard on every question of morals, public policy, or political economy that has agitated the nation since he be- came the head of the American Catholic hierarchy, and has al- ways said the right thing at the right time."
Such a life calls for no small or transitory memorial, cir- cumscribed by narrow limits. It is believed that the American people will desire to see preserved for all time the memory and the honor of the good Cardinal in the Capital of the Nation, and in such a way that his personality shall forever continue among us a religious, educational, and patriotic force.
If the subscriptions are numerous and generous enough, the Trustees of the University will proceed quickly to the erection of the new Cardinal Gibbons Hall, so that it may be practically finished on October 30, when the Cardinal will celebrate solemn- ly the two anniversaries of his ordination to the priesthood and his elevation to the Cardinalate.
Your voluntary contribution is respectfully solicited. Any sum, however small, mill he thankfully received and will he duly recorded in a great album always accessible to visitors. The names of those who contribute five hundred dollars or more will he inscribed on suitable tablets in the vestibule of the new Hall, while members of the University, professors and students, will never cease to remember gratefully and to pray for the generous donors.
All checks should be made payable to Rt. Rev. Owen B. Cor- rigan, D. D., Treasurer, 1611 Baker Street, Baltimore, Md., and all correspondence should be addressed to Very Rev. George A. Dougherty, D. D., Vice-Rector, Catholic University, Wash- ington, D. C.
Very respectfully yours in Xto,
^OWEN B. CORRIGAN,,
Bishop of Macra, President of the Committee and Treasurer.
The generous response to this appeal showed that the project was heartily endorsed throughout the country and justified the immediate building of the Hall.
830 The Catholic Educational Eeview
The plans were prepared by Messrs. Thomas H. Poole and Co., of New York City, and the contract was awarded to the Boyle Eobertson Construction Company of Wash- ington. The building is located on Michigan Avenue a short distance west of Albert Hall. It is in the Tudor Gothic style, three stories high with a total length of 267 feet and a depth of 40 feet. A central tower 36 feet square rises to a height of 70 feet. The material is Port Deposit granite with Indiana limestone for trim. In its interior finish, arrangement and furnishings, the Hall provides fully for the safety and comfort of its occupants. When completed it will accommodate 130 students. At present the portion west of the tower is finished and is occupied. The tower is also in course of construction and it is hoped that the entire building may be completed within a year.
The cornerstone was laid in the northwest angle of the tower, which at the time had been built up to the water- table and upon which a temporary platform was laid for the accommodation of the speakers, the prelates and the invited guests.
The procession moved from McMahon Hall at 4 p. m., crossed the campus and preceded the Cardinal to the plat- form. During the ceremony, appropriate anthems were sung by the university choir with accompaniment by the IT. S. Marine Band. When the stone had been placed in position, the Most Eev. John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York, addressed the Cardinal on behalf of the Board of Trustees.
ARCHBISHOP Farley's address.
As Vice-President of the Board of Trustees, I am privileged to stand here before this distinguished assembly and speak on this historic occasion— the double jubilee of him whom we are proud to regard as the decus^ honor et gloria of the Church in America.
The massive and majestic monument, of which we have just laid the cornerstone, is to be known while its walls shall stand
Caedinal Gibbons Memoeial Hall 831
as the fitting but all-inadequate testimonial of our gratitude to James Cardinal Gibbons, ninth Metropolitan of the venerable See of Baltimore, the mother see of the Church in the United States, America's second cardinal and the first chancellor of the Catholic University of America, the most beloved man of the American Church today.
This cornerstone is one of the milestones in the path of our University on its way to what we may now confidently regard as a glorious future ; and on such occasions as this it is usual and useful to look back for a moment on our history.
Although only twenty years have elapsed since its birth, our University was conceived in the minds of the fathers of the Second Council of Baltimore (1866) nearly half a century ago. They desired earnestly to have in this country, under Catholic auspices, a university in which all branches of litera- ture and science, both sacred and profane, should be taught. But the time was not yet ripe for the realization of this hope. This came when the young and energetic archbishop of this venerable diocese was appointed by the great Leo XIII as his legate to preside over the most important council ever held in this country, the Third Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1884.
The priestly experience of Cardinal Gibbons seems to have been, in all its phases, a preparation for the great work of founding and fostering the Catholic University of America. Like the present Holy Father he has filled every position in the ranks of the clergy. Beginning as a young curate, he be- came pastor and then secretary to the great Martin John Spalding, one of his illustrious predecessors, who found in him the Leonidas well fitted to man the Thermopylae of the mountains of North Carolina where hostility to the Church was strong and where opposition grew out of ignorance be- cause there was none to break the bread of life to the people. There, as bishop, Monsignor Gibbons passed the most laborious years of his early missionary life — "in journeying often, in perils of waters, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- ness, in perils in the sea, in labor and painfulness, in much watchings," to the end that he might become all to all and
832 The Catholic Educational Eeview
win all to Christ. There he gathered from contact with many outside the Church, from meditation and study, materials for the work which has made him known through all the land and beyond its borders, the "Faith of our Fathers," which has led so many in the way of peace and which will go down the ages enlightening souls when these memorial walls shall have crum- bled into dust.
The prudence, learning and zeal evinced by Archbishop Gibbons during the Council, and his tactful guidance of the deliberations of the entire American episcopate in dealing with the most momentous questions, told that the hour and the man had come for the inauguration of the great work of a Catholic university. Then and there it was decided to establish a ^^sem- inarium principal as the nucleus out of which a complete Catholic university should later develop.
In 1885 the Sovereign Pontiff expressed his great pleasure at learning of this decision and gave his formal approval in a letter to Archbishop Gibbons in 1887 ; two years later the Pope approved the constitution of the University and granted it full power to confer degrees. In this letter the Holy Father de- fined the scope of the Catholic University, viz., "to provide in- struction in every department of learning to the end that the clergy and the laity alike might have ample opportunity to satisfy fully their laudible desire for knowledge."
It was thus that this great central seat of learning sprang up under the control of the bishops of the United States, im- mediately governed by a board of trustees composed of bishops, priests and laymen who represent the American Catholic Church in the ownership and direction of the Catholic Univer- sity. While the responsibility in general for the working of the institution rests on the Board of Trustees, the central pivot in which every movement of the great and growing mechanism of the institution turned was the Chairman of the Board, the Chancellor of the University. In times of stress all learned to turn to him; to him everyone looked for inspiration in each new departure in the career of the institution, and in every change and circumstance he was found equal to the demand.
But while Cardinal Gibbons thus rendered invaluable serv- ice from the beginning in every juncture, never in its history
Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall 833
was his indomitable courage, the quality most needed in every vast undertaking, so notably shown as in the dark days of its greatest trial. For trials it has had in common with all great things begun for God and the good of religion. For then even those who loved the University with the love of a strong man's soul lost heart and hope, felt in all sincerity that the work had been premature and that this trial was the extremest test under which it must go down, to await other times and other men in generations to come. And these did not even hesitate to advise that the enterprise be abandoned. Then it was that he whom we delight to honor by these walls proved the bul- wark of the people. "Never," he said, "while I have power to wield a pen in appeal or lift a voice in pleading, shall this work of religion stop. God wills it; the work must go on."
And he triumphed, aye, almost alone. Yes, in that crucial time he might be said to have tread the winepress alone. And today is laid upon his venerable brow the crown which is the fruit of this courage of the Cross.
If today the Catholic University stands forth before the world a thing of beauty and of fairest promise, fairer and more prosperous than at any time in its history, no longer a source of painful anxiety, not only for its future but for its very ex- istence, it is, under God, wholly due to the indomitable labor of his Eminence Cardinal Gibbons.
It is said, "Put not your trust in princes." In this our prince of the Church we have trusted, and we have not been confounded. His princedom is not of this world. He worked and prayed and hoped in the Lord and has not been disap- pointed.
These things, too, he has done for the University not only while he was laboring in his own diocese, but while his in- fluence was being cast in favor of every good and patriotic cause throughout the length and breadth of the land. And with it all he seems to renew his youth, like the eagle. The winter of discontent seems never to have dawned for him, but rather does he seem to enjoy a perpetual Indian summer. Long be
it so.
Your Eminence, may you see the years of Leo, your great friend whose noble purpose in founding this University you have so zealously and so successfully striven to realize, and
834 The Catholic Educational Eeview
may the abiding hope of the Apostle of the Gentiles be yours, that through all the vicissitudes of effort and success, of solici- tude and of joy, you may say with him : "As to the rest, there is laid up for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will render to me in that day."
The Archbishop was followed by Eev. Dr. Charles F. Aiken of the Faculty of the Sacred Sciences, who spoke as follows :
DR. AIKEN^S ADDRESS.
Your Eminence :
It is with mingled feelings of pride and gratitude that we greet you here today. We, members of the Catholic University of America, esteem it an honor to add our tribute of hearty congratulation to the many expressions of good-will that your jubilee has called forth. To have lived a faithful priest of God for half a century, bearing as time went on the accumulating honors and responsibilities of bishop, archbishop, and cardinal, and giving ample proof that each successive dignity had been deservedly bestowed, all this, surely, is a sign of greatness and a cause of just pride to every Catholic heart. What a beautiful and inspiring example is not a life like yours, consecrated to the spiritual uplift of your fellow-men and rich in good deeds! You "have taught many and have strengthened weary hands," and glorious is the promised reward, for "they that instruct many unto justice shall shine as stars for all eternity." In your long life of unbroken devotion to the priestly ideal set forth by Christ, one may learn many a useful lesson, — that there is nothing nobler than a life of generous activity in the service of God and one's fellow-men ; that true devotion to the Church does but foster loyalty to a State like ours; that dignity of office need not exclude simplicity of manner ; that the authority of the priesthood shows grandest when exercised with kindness and fatherly affection ; that the influence of the church leader on his generation is enlarged beyond measure by a sympathetic interest in the great social problems that are pressing for solu- tion.
In length of service you stand today the dean of the bishops and archbishops of this country. Yet, despite your long span of life, we would not call you old. There is a pathos in a busy,
Caedinal Gibbons Memorial Hall 835
useful life that runs out into a sterile old age, indifferent to the urgent calls of the present, ever gazing with vacant stare into the dim past. Beautiful, on the other hand, is an age like yours, advanced in years, but still active and fruitful, giving to your youthful contemporaries a high example of untiring industry and of keen interest in the rising questions of the day. Old age like this is something precious. It is one of the brightest orna- ments that can grace a man. It is the nearest approach to perpetual youth.
While we congratulate you on having attained so happily the jubilee of your priesthood and the twenty-fifth anniversary of your elevation to the office of cardinal, we are glad, as members of the University, to take this occasion to express to you our feelings of profound gratitude. The laying of the cornerstone of this handsome building does but call attention to an act of beneficence on your part as gracious as it is far reaching in its benign influence. Through a singular love of the University, over which you have exercised the office of Chancellor from the beginning, and for which you have made many a generous sacri- fice in the past, you have ordained that the visible token of esteem, with which a host of admirers throughout the land wish to mark your jubilee, should take the form of a hall of study, with the view to promote the efficiency of this noble seat of learning. We deeply appreciate this generous act of faith in the Catholic University of America. The Gibbons Memorial Hall, in the shadow of whose ornate walls we are gathered to- day, will tell to coming generations of the large-heartedness of the prelate whose name it bears, who, unmindful of self, turned a gift from the people into a perennial source of usefulness in the cause of higher Christian education, verifying the words of the great Master he served so well, "it is more blessed to give than to receive."
The third speaker was Dr. Daniel W. Shea, Dean of the Faculty of Sciences.
DR. shea's address.
Your Eminence:
Permit me, in the name of the lay faculties of the University, to give, in a few words, expression to thoughts which the beau-
836 The Catholic Educational Eeview
tiful and noble significance of today's celebration awakens.
In the development of mankind, it has been permitted to but few men that their names should mark both the founding and the splendid growth of a great undertaking. Your Eminence be- longs to those few. And more fortunate than most of them, Your Eminence still lives, in the fulness of strength, to see the fruits of your work before you in this large body of professors and students, in these many costly buildings, large libraries of rare volumes and spacious laboratories full of modern appli- ances. Well may Your Eminence be elated that today there is united with the deeply felt recognition of educators in all parts of this country the thankfulness of hundreds of young men who have passed out from these portals with your approval upon them.
As was most fitting. Your Eminence and those associated with you began the University with the founding of a School of Sacred Theology, for the education of priests is the highest education, since the ideal of the Christian priest is the most exalted, his vocation the most sublime, his office the most holy, his duties the most spiritual and his mission the most important and most sacred thing which can be assigned to a human being.
But the conquests of the mind in other realms of learning had produced a world-wide ferment of thought, an intellectual activity without a parallel in the world's history ; they had in- creased the power of man to an almost incredible degree, had given him control of earth and seas, had placed within his grasp undreamed of forces, had opened to his view unsuspected mysteries, had placed him on a new earth and under new heav- ens, and thrown light never seen before upon the history of his race. As a part of this development new questions had arisen, new theories had been broached. For the study of these, for the making of new conquests, education was needed that would en- large the intellect in new directions, and strengthen its facul- ties in new ways, so as to enable it to take connected views of new things and their relations, and to see clear amid the mazes of human errors and through the mists of human passion.
In order that the University might have its share in the im- parting of this education, in the new conquest in many depart-
Cardinal Gibbons Memorial Hall 837
ments of learning, in the solution of innumerable problems, and in the building up of new theories. Your Eminence devoted great energy to the fuller development of the University in founding the lay faculties, although the heavy duties of your high ecclesiastical office taxed your strength already nearly to the utmost with spiritual and intellectual activities.
With joyful expectation, the lay faculties have looked for- ward to this day as a particularly fitting time to pay you homage, for none know better than they how much Your Em- inence has sacrificed for them, and how lively and how constant has been your interest in them, and how much you have had at heart that they shoud have a very large share in the education of the youth of America, and in the widening of the yet narrow boundaries of human knowledge. They know with what clear- ness of spirit you have penetrated into all details and with what nobility of sentiment you have accomplished all the affairs of the University, with what fortitude you have met misfortunes and with how great wisdom you have overcome them. And in the darkest days of the University, when it seemed that the work of the lay faculties must be ended, we know with what correctness of thought, with what openness of mind, with what flexibility of view, you took up against almost insurmountable opposition, the consideration and the formulation of plans that would forever guarantee the integrity of all the existing lay faculties, and make ready the way for new ones.
The world-wide and respectful recognition which the work of these lay faculties has received, indicates that their activities have not been without large success, and, under the stimulus of your cultivated intellect, your rich imagination, your elo- quent expression, these faculties will continue to strive for the attainment of still greater successes in the acquisition of knowl- edge, in the imparting of knowledge, even though it may not be a means to wealth, or power, or any other common aim of life, to the end that we may have: judicious lawyers of wide mental culture and superior strength of character; men of let- ters who will produce literature that will elevate and refine the spirit of the whole people; philosophers with clear, calm, ac- curate comprehension of all things so far as the finite mind can
838 The Catholic Educational Eeview
embrace them; scientists who will regard the mind as the or- gan of truth, and train it for its own sake without reference to the exercise of a profession ; engineers who will serve the high- est purposes of the nation in the development of its vast natural resources. They will progress with religious zeal, high courage and strong endeavor, and imitating Columbus, who wrote in his journal day after day, those simple, but sublime words, "sailed westward today which is my course," they will write in their faculty records day after day, "progressed knowledge- ward today which is our course," and like him give new knowl- edge to the world, and enlarge the boundaries of the scope of earthly life.
It is of great interest to note that the inception of the Uni- versity was almost coincident with the beginning of your priest- ly life, for it was in the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore that the establishment of the University received its first con- sideration. It is also of great interest to note that the actual establishment of the University was almost coincident with the beginning of your Cardinalate, so that your life as priest and as cardinal has been closely interwoven with that of the Uni- versity, in the first part in the consideration of the needs and the possibilities of a university, in the second part, in the ac- tual building of the University. Thus the jubilees which Your Eminence is about to celebrate are, in some measure, also jubi- lees of the University.
Our warmest thanks and the thanks of mankind are due you for the devotion which you have given in founding these lay faculties deep and firm. The latest evidence of that devotion we have in this splendid new hall for lay students of which the cornerstone has been laid today.
Our warmest wishes go with you into the new half century of your life as priest so rich already in great spiritual and in- tellectual accomplishments, into the new quarter century of your Cardinalate.
May many years be granted to you of spiritual and bodily freshness and vigor, so that Your Eminence may continue to be our guiding light in our efforts to attain the highest ideals of mankind.
Cakdinal Gibbons Memobial Hall 839
In reply to these words of congratulation, His Emi- nence expressed Ms heartfelt thanks, his joy in the pro- gress of the University and his confidence in its future. Continuing he said:
I cannot but recall today the first occasion on which a cere- mony of this sort was performed in these grounds — when the cornerstone of the first building was laid as the rain fell in torrents from a sky which gave no promise of sunshine and the earth itself offered no suggestion of the edifices that now meet our view. What a pleasure by contrast it is to stand here this afternoon, for winter is now past, the rain is over and gone. Well may we exclaim: "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer." The University, indeed, has had its days of wintry gloom, when misfortunes fell upon it fast and thick. Yet Almighty God has been pleased to preserve it through all adversity and even has turned to its advantage the evils which befell and the disasters which threatened it. Under the divine blessing the University now looks with courage and even with enthusiasm to the coming years, to the larger work that awaits it. Its inner life has been strengthened, its de- partments have multiplied, its faculties have grown in num- bers and efficiency. It is even now under the happy necessity of providing a home for the students who, year by year, be- come more numerous. And I trust that this Hall may be fol- lowed in due time by other buildings to meet the demands created by the University's growth.
As the prosperity of the University, since the day of its foun- dation, has ever been uppermost in my thought and foremost in my endeavor, I rejoice exceedingly in its present good for- tune and in its splendid prospect. I am in particular pleased to note that its efforts in behalf of our Catholic people, in be- half of our lay students, are winning appreciation; and I sincerely hope that we may soon be in a position to extend the facilities of the University to a much larger number.
But our first care must be to complete this Hall which al- ready represents so much generosity and good-will on the part
840 The Catholic Educational Eeview
of the Catholics of this country. We owe it to them to make this a perfect work, a home in which our students may pursue, in safety and comfort, the courses of study for which their parents have sent them to the University. For their sake as well as for the sake of the University, I earnestly trust that all who hear me now or to whom my words may come, will do whatever they can towards completing this structure and thereby extending to greater numbers of our young men the benefits of Catholic education. In my own name and in the name of the Trustees, I desire again to thank all who have had a share in this noble undertaking and have afforded us so ma ny reasons for pressing forward in our efforts for the cause of God and His Church.
DISCUSSION.
TEACHING THE CHILD TO SPELL.
Should a spelling-hook he used; and if so, in what grades? Should spelling he taught hy the oral or hy the writ- ten method or hy hothf What is the cause of the had spelling which is so prevalent among our school children?
The above are typical of a multitude of questions con- cerning the method of teaching spelling which have reach- ed me during the past year. Brief answers might readily be made to each of these questions, but the matter is of such importance that a somewhat fuller development seems advisable.
We teach children to spell in order that they may be able to write correctly. Oral spelling has no real value apart from the aid which it may lend to correct writing, and hence at first sight it would seem to be difficult to justify it, since it is a roundabout way of accomplishing the end which we have in view. However, the process of learning to spell is not as simple as this might seem to indicate.
When the child of six enters school he usually possesses a large spoken vocabulary which is more or less accu- rately developed in accordance with the language spoken in his home environment, whereas he seldom possesses any written language. In other words, his center of hear- ing in the temporal lobe of the brain has been enriched by a large number of well developed word memories which function in controlling his organs of speech and in lead- ing him into an understanding of what the people around him are thinking and saying. The school undertakes to develop similar word memories in the visual area of the
842 The Catholic Educational, Eeview
occipital lobe and the practical question which confronts the teacher in the primary grades is how to proceed in this new line of brain development. Shall she follow the lines in the development of the visual area which have been followed with such success in the development of the auditory area? That is, shall the child be taught the meaning of the written word from its relationship to the thing signified and ignore for the time being the existence of the auditory word-memories which the child already possesses? Or shall she proceed from the oral vocabu- lary to build up the relationships between the oral and the visual words, translating the one into the other, and rest- ing content with this indirect connection between the written word and the concept for which it stands? Or shall both methods be employed simultaneously?
This is merely stating our questions in psychological terminology ; but this statement is valuable to the teacher because it reveals to some extent the physiological basis of the process involved in learning to spell and at the same time it seems to point the way to a satisfactory answer to many questions which are continually arising concerning the work of teaching spelling.
One would expect that better immediate results might be looked for from the oral method, in so far as it borrows the large oral vocabulary which the child possesses for the foundation of written language; but, on the other hand, such a procedure might be expected to yield very poor final results since the foundation laid is not strong or abiding and, above all, since it is not direct. If the teacher has no other interest in the matter than to exhibit at the end of the year the number of words which the children are able to spell correctly, she will naturally turn to the oral method as the sole one to be employed or at least as a valuable auxiliary. Whether or not such a procedure would result in a permanent impairment of the future man's power to clearly and easily grasp the thoughts ly-
Discussion 843
ing back of the printed page, does not concern such a teacher.
On the other hand, where the real interests of the child control the work of education, the axiom is likely to be festina lente. Put in secure foundations, use only such methods as will tend to secure the best final results. The teacher who takes this view of the matter will be likely to lay chief emphasis on the visual method of teaching spelling and to use the oral method, if at all, in a second- ary capacity. She will find many reasons for pursuing this course among the considerations which make for the context method of reading.
Our aim in teaching the child to read should be to en- able the man to think clearly and connectedly the thoughts presented by the written page. The written words serve their real function when they call up into the focus of consciousness the chain of thought while they themselves remain in the indirect field of vision. The less conscious we are of the word and the more vividly conscious of the thing the better. Above all, the relationship of thought to thought, in which the processes of judgment and rea- son consist, must not be enfeebled or obscured by the in- trusion upon the field of mental vision of resemblances and relationships between the groups of words used as a means for bringing the thought complexes into conscious- ness. It is considerations such as these which lead to a realization of the incalculable injury which is being done to the minds of our children by the abuse of phonic meth- ods, and whenever the phonic method is used to facilitate the child's finding or calling new words it is an abuse. The phonic method has its real value in connection with the speech center; its function is to perfect pronunciation and it should not be allowed to intrude itself into the process of developing in the brain of the child visual im- ages of words. It will readily be understood that a sim- ilar objection may be urged against the oral method of
844 The Catholic Educational Eeview
teaching spelling. In so far as the oral method may aid in pronunciation and syllabification it is valuable, but these are secondary considerations in view of the main end to be attained in teaching spelling, which is correct writing, a process which depends mainly upon the clear- ness of the visual word image and associated muscle memories.
The processes involved in reading, writing and spell- ing are most intimately related and our methods of de- veloping and perfecting them should also be closely re- lated. The most important part of the work consists in developing in the child's mind a clear, strong image of the thing signified and an adequate word image which, in all the subsequent work of the mind, may serve as a means of calling up the image of the thing, while the word image itself remains subconscious.
Four distinct elements are involved in this process: 1. The development of a thought or of a mental image of some objective reality. 2. The development in the visual area of a written word which has been adopted as a sym- bol of the thought in question. 3. The linking together of these two images. 4. The relative strength of the two images so as to secure the easy possession of the focus of consciousness by the thought and the automatic and sub- conscious functioning of the word-picture.
If we are to succeed in the work here outlined, we must begin with the development of the thought and when this is strong and clear in the mind of the child, we should develop the word and link it to the thought. In each sub- sequent recurrence of this dual image the one first de- veloped will tend to be the stronger and accordingly will maintain its place at the center of the field of vision. This tendency will be further strengthened by the development of the relationships in the thought system. If, however, this process be reversed and the words be developed be- fore the concepts for which they stand, the words will tend to maintain their place at the center of consciousness
Discussion 845
and to banish into obscurity the thought signified, and this tendency will be further strengthened by the develop- ment of the system of word relationships, such as that in- volved in current phonic methods. The net result will be a mind dominated by words and word relationships and yet starved in the matter of real mental food. From this it may also be inferred that the practice of teaching chil- dren to spell words the meanings of which are unknown to them must lead to pernicious results and this inference is abundantly justified by experience.
It is considerations such as these which have led to the abandonment of the formal spelling-book, at least in the elementary grades. It may be laid down as a safe rule that the child should never be called upon to spell a word until its meaning is vividly present to him. In the early part of the process the thought should be emphasized and the word must not be adverted to unnecessarily until such time as the thought image is secure in its possession of the focus of consciousness. Then, and not until then, should the child ^s attention be directed to the form of the word, to its correct pronunciation and to its accurate spelling. Consequently, the spelling drill should follow the reading lesson; it must not be allowed to precede it. And when I say it must follow the reading lesson, I mean that the word must have occurred with sufficient fre- quency in the reading lesson in different contexts to de- velop and perfect the meaning of the word in the child's consciousness. After this we may safely proceed with the work of developing the word image, and in this we need spelling and phonetic drills, but even then spelling drills may be given with the greatest profit when the words are used in appropriate sentences which should be dictated by the teacher.
The first lessons in spelling, like the first lessons in reading, should be given on the blackboard. The teacher should write the utterance on the board and demonstrate
846 The Catholic Educational Eeview
its meaning and then the children in turn should be al- lowed to do the thing signified. When a reasonable num- ber of such utterances have been developed in this way, the children, after doing the thing signified, should turn their backs to the blackboard and tell the class what is written upon it. Finally, they should be led to reproduce the utterance in writing. In this way the right sequence is developed between the thought and the mental image of its written form. Little by little, words which appear in various utterances tend to isolate themselves from the rest of the utterances in the child's mind and thus he gradually gains a consciousness of words as separate en- tities and it is not until then that the drill in spelling should begin. Similarly, the written characters from ap- pearing in various complexes tend to isolate themselves and then the child should be taught to name them and to learn his alphabet in its proper sequence.
During the first phase of the child's work in school no book should be placed in his hands. The blackboard and the chart are the proper media for instruction in reading, writing, spelling, drawing, etc. There can be no question as to the use of a spelling-book at this stage of the work. The attention of the children and all the available energy of the teacher will be required at this time for the devel- opment of a limited written vocabulary and of a few pri- mary apperception masses. The words and phrases used in these elementary reading lessons are the only ones which any practical teacher will attempt to use in the ac- companying drills in writing and spelling. When ques- tions concerning the use of a spelling-book or the oral and written methods of teaching spelling are raised, reference is usually had to the later phases of the work, that is, from the second grade onward.
We will take the work of the second grade as typical of a method of teaching spelling which should be em- ployed in connection with the context method of reading.
DiscussioK 847
The latter half of the first year's work represents a tran- sition phase from the blackboard and chart work as out- lined above to the method which we are here discussing.
Before taking up the details of this method, however, we must invite the attention of the reader to the well- known fact that children differ widely in their power of visualizing. This difference is due in part to physiolog- ical conditions which result in varying rates of develop- ment in the cortical areas, particularly in the newest por- tions of the brain, the temporal and the occipital lobes, which are the centers of hearing and seeing respectively. This difference may be traced to a variety of causes, such as heredity, the nutritive and hygienic conditions which prevailed during infancy, the stimulation of the environ- ment, previous training, etc. Elsewhere we shall discuss the causes and remedies for these conditions. All that it is necessary to bear in mind for our present purpose is the fact that whatever be the cause, the children in the second grade differ widely in their power of visualizing the words which we wish to teach them to read and to spell correctly.
It might also be well to warn the teacher of the danger and injustice which lie in the habit of classifying poor visualizers with dull and backward children and of re- garding good visualizers as bright children. Abundant evidence is at hand to show that children with limited power of visualization may have splendid powers in other directions. When such children are properly handled, they frequently attain a very high development not only in these other directions but even in visualizing power. Many a promising child has been thoroughly discouraged through the teacher's misunderstanding of this subject. It would, indeed, be interesting to know what proportion of our laggards owe their unhappy condition to the un- pardonable blundering of teachers in the primary grades with reference to this very matter.
848 The Catholic Educational Review
Nowhere else does the prevalent procrustean method of a rigid system of grading show to poorer advantage than in the primary grades. The children differ widely from each other on entering school. They differ in age, in heredity, in nationality; they differ because of the di verse family customs and the physical environment to which they were subjected. To put fifty of these children into a room and treat them in the selfsame manner, in the hope of developing them normally along mental lines, comes pretty near reaching the climax of absurdity.
Each child should be treated according to his needs. But we are told that no teacher can spare the time to deal with each child individually and hence that she is com- pelled to assume in her work what she knows to be untrue, namely, that the children are alike and all need the same treatment. Until this state of affairs can be remedied all talk of scientific methods in the primary grades is illu- sory. There is a growing consciousness of the incongru- ity of the situation which has led to various attempts at developing individual methods. The Batavian method, whether successful or not, is significant of the dissatis- faction with the prevalent methods of primary work.
If time cannot be spared by the teacher to deal with each child according to his individual needs, may it not be possible for her to divide the class of fifty children into several groups on the basis of their aptitude for the Work at hand? If this does not go the whole length of the individual method, nevertheless it will escape the excesses of the simultaneous method, of which complaint is made. The methods of teaching reading and spelling which we are here advocating aim at a nearer approach to the child's capacity than is possible in the methods in current use. They also aim at utilizing, as far as possible, the imitative tendency and the mutual helpfulness of the chil- dren. The method of teaching reading was dealt with elsewhere. A brief outline of the method of teaching spelling follows :
Discussion 849
the text-book.
The text-book should be constructed along the lines of the method to be employed by the teacher. Where the context method is to be employed in teaching the child to read, continuity of thought should characterize the read- ers in the elementary grades. This is necessary if the thought development is to dominate the accompanying word development. Moreover, since the thought more or less determines the language, it is necessary to preserve continuity so that we may constantly re-employ the words previously learned, with a small percentage of new words, which the child will readily get from the context. Where the first and second books are made up of selections deal- ing with isolated themes, there is both lack of interest and sudden transition to new vocabularies, both of which impede the child's progress. The continuous story en- ables the child to anticipate what is coming and thus min- isters to his growing self-reliance, while his thought and his vocabulary unfold naturally in accordance with the laws of organic development.
The primary books of the Catholic Education Series have been written to meet the demands of the context method of reading and of the present method of spelling. The teachers' manual of primary methods, which is in- tended to accompany these readers, gives the word lists for each story in Eeligion, First and Second Book under numbers which indicate whether the words in question are used in the corresponding story for the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth time. After the word has been used for the tenth time it ceases to be listed, as the children are all supposed to be able to spell it and pronounce it correctly.
The teacher should write the appropriate numbers under the corresponding words in her copy of the reader. The words which remain without numbers under them are such as have been used more than ten times : these words
850 The Catholic Educational. Eeview
should be known by all the children.* The words with ^'10'' under them will form suitable drills for the poorest visualizers, whereas words with 5 or 6 under them may be found suitable for the best visualizers in^ the room. But before the teacher can proceed intelli- gently with her drills, she must classify her children ac- cording to their various visualizing power.
Classifying the Childken. For the purpose of illus- tration we shall suppose that the teacher is about to take over a class towards the end of the first year or the be- ginning of the second. If the previous work has been well done, she will find that all the children, with the pos- sible exception of those that are abnormal or atypical, are able to write and read correctly sentences composed of words which have no numbers under them, that is, of words that have been used more than ten times in the preceding stories.
The teacher should then dictate a number of sentences employing all the ^^10'^ words in the reading lesson, to- gether with words used more than ten times, and she should write ''10^' opposite the names of the children who evince a difficulty in spelling or pronouncing correctly any of the ^^10'' words. These children are the poorest visualizers in the room. The remainder of the children should then be required to write sentences in which all the * ^ 9 ' ' words are used together with words used more than nine times. And children manifesting difficulty in writing and reading these sentences will be indicated in the register by the ^^9''. This process should be re- ' peated with the ^^8'' words, with the '^7'' words, and so on, until even the best visualizers in the school begin to show difficulty in writing or pronouncing the words.
Let us suppose that this limit is reached in dealing with the **5" words. This would give us six groups classified according to the children's power of spell-
*The number ten is chosen empirically and may be varied to suit the class.
Discussion 851
ing and pronoimcing words. Each of these groups will readily fall into two, depending upon whether the difficulty appears m visualizing or in vocalizing. For the sake of simplicity, we shall at present ignore this dif- ference and consider only the six groups indicated.
Spelling Drills. The teacher is now in possession of an item of knowledge concerning her children which will enable her to proceed with some regard to their varied capacities. After the reading lesson, the ^^5'' children will be drilled on ^^5'' words, both as to pronounciation and as to spelling. The words, of course, must always be given in sentences composed of words none of which has been used less than five times. The teacher will next turn to the *^6'' children and drill them on the ^^6" words, that is, on words which have appeared for the sixth time in the context and which have been used for one drill with the number five children. Similarly, the number seven children will be called upon to reproduce words which have appeared for the seventh time in the context of the lesson and which they have witnessed in two word drills. And so on down through the class.
All the children learn the same words; they all make an approximately equal effort in the learning, but those who need least help get least help and those who need most help get most help. Each group receives accord- ing to the measure of its need. And since the principle underlying the classification of the children is known only to the teacher, the children are unaware of the pres- ence in the room of any ** bright children*' or of any *^dull children. ' ' If the teacher finds from day to day that the work is too easy for a given child, she moves it up a num- ber; if she finds the work too difficult for any child, she moves it down a number. In fact, the teacher keeps her class in tune, as a musician would his instrument, and at the end of the year none but really defective children will have failed to make their grade. Eetardation and elimi- nation, the two-fold curse of the public school system of
852 The Catholic Educational Eeview
this country, will be practically unknown where the scientific methods here outlined are employed. The method of teaching spelling which we are here advocating must not be confounded with that which a recent writer on the subject designates as the '^incidental'' method.
When the child first meets a word, high cortical tension in the visual area is called into play to ^x the word in the visual memory. At each subsequent recurrence of the word a lessened attention and a lessened energy are re- quired. Finally, the process becomes automatic and the nerve tension required may fall below the threshold of consciousness. After this it becomes increasingly diffi- cult to correct the memory-pictures which govern the pro- nunciation and the spelling of the word. It is highly im- portant, therefore, to perfect the memory-images before the process becomes automatic. If the attention of the child is called to the spelling and the pronunciation of a word the first time it occurs, the result is bad, because the attention is called to the detail before the substance of the word has taken form in the brain ; it would be like endeavoring to paint a house before the house was built. On the other hand, to defer perfecting the spelling and pronunciation of a word until such time as they have be- come automatic, is to render the task needlessly difficult. If a ^^10" child be exercised on a *'5" word, we sin in the former way; whereas, if a '*5" child be exercised on a **10" word, we sin in the latter way. The teacher must determine empirically the period at which it is advisable to drill each child in the spelling and pronuncia- tion of the words which he is in the process of mastering.
If one should desire to ascertain how unscientific are the prevalent methods employed in the primary class- room, nothing further would be necessary than to ask a teacher to classify the children in her room according to their visualizing power, or to point out in the text which the children were required to read the words which oc-
Discussion 853
cur for the first, second, third, or tenth time, or ask her to state how many drills were had in the class on any of these words. The teacher usually proceeds blindly and by a hit or miss method she calls upon a child to pronounce or spell a given word without knowing the visualizing power of the child or the stage of development which it has reached in regard to the word in question. What wonder that the results are disappointing! She calls upon a child without knowing whether its visualiz- ing index is ^ve or ten and requires him to spell a word without knowing the least whether it is the fifth or the twentieth time that the word has occurred in the child's work.
The new words are sometimes set forth at the begin- nino: of the lesson and the teacher endeavors to have the children master their spelling and pronunciation before they have learned the meaning, thus reversing the natural order, and yet we complain that our children in the eighth grade are unable to think, that they are unable to para- pharse a paragraph, that they are unable to spell accu- rately or to read fluently.
If a spelling-book be used, it must be one constructed out of the words employed in the child's reader and these words must be so arranged as to permit the teacher to give to her children each day the drills which they require in accordance with their varied powers of visualization. Moreover, as the words should not be given alone but in sentences, it would appear that the reader is the proper medium for the teaching of spelling in the first and sec- ond grades. When we cease endeavoring to make the children learn to spell a great many words which they will probably never use and the meaning of which they do not know, we will find the requisite time in which to teach them to spell correctly the words which they will use in expressing their thoughts in writing.
Thomas Edwakd Shields.
CURRENT EVENTS
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
The formal opening of the present academic year at the Catholic University took place on Sunday, Oct. 8. Solemn Mass of the Holy Ghost was celebrated by the Rt. Rev. Rector in the Assembly Room, McMahon Hall, at 10.30 o'clock. He was assisted by the Rev. T. A. Ryder, C. S. P. deacon. Rev. H. A. Swift, C. S. P. subdeacon, and Mr. J. C. Allard, master of ceremonies.
The entire faculty, dressed in academic robes, and the stu- dent body, now the largest in the history of the University, attended the ceremony. The Rt. Rev. Rector made many im- portant announcements of changes in the faculty for the new year, and afterward delivered an inspiring address on the "Academic Virtues."
sisters' college
The Sisters' College which opened on Oct. 3 was solemnly inaugurated on Saturday, Oct. 7, by His Excellency, the Most Rev. Diomede Falconio, Apostolic Delegate. The exercises took place in St. Benedict's Convent, Brookland, where the students of the College were assembled. His Excellency of- fered the Mass of the Holy Ghost, assisted by Very Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Shields, and Rev. Dr. William Turner as deacons. The Rt. Rev. Rector addressed the students and faculty on the significance of the occasion, and beautifully depicted the fu- ture usefulness of the new college in the cause of religion and Catholic education in this country. The choir of the Immacu- late Conception College rendered the music, and many of the Dominican Fathers were present. The following members of the faculty of the Catholic University who are now conduct- ing courses at the Sisters' College attended the ceremony: Very Rev. Dr. Edward A. Pace, Very Rev. Dr. Thomas E. Shields, Dr. George M. Boiling, Very Rev. Dr. John D. Ma- guire. Rev. Dr. William Turner, Dr. Aubrey E. Landry, Rev. Dr. Patrick J. McCormick, and Dr. Thomas C. Carrigan.
^ Current Even^Ic^ 855
FIRST BISHOP OF TOLEDO
The diocese of Toledo receives in its first bishop, Kt. Rev. Joseph Schrembs, D. D., an ardent promotor of Catholic educa- tion. Since his first pastorate in West Bay City, Michigan, Bishop Schrembs has been an energetic organizer of parish schools. In Grand Rapids where he was located later, he ac- complished with the co-operation of the other pastors of the city the difficult task of establishing a successful system of central Catholic high schools. As chairman of the School Board of the diocese his interest never waned in the larger questions of diocesan school management and administration. In recent years he has represented the diocese of Grand Rapids at the meetings of the Catholic Educational Association, and his addresses at these gatherings, particularly in Detroit and Chicago, were notable for their eloquence and Catholic fervor. The church in Toledo may confidently expect great things from its new and zealous leader.
ANNOUNCEMENTS OF VILLA SANCTA SCHOLASTICA
The fall number of the Villa Sancta Scholastica Quarterly announces that Sister Mary Alexia, O. S. B., has been chosen to succeed her sister, the late Mother Scholastica Kerst, O. S. B., as Mother Prioress of the Sisters of St. Benedict whose Motherhouse is located at Duluth, Minn.
Many will be interested to learn of another important an- nouncement in the Quarterly. "Villa Sancta Scholastica has opened a college department in order to accommodate itself to the desires of high school graduates wishing to pursue more advanced studies and, more especially, to supply ready means of higher education for postulants and novices of the com- munity who later may be called upon to teach in the Academy or in the parochial grade and high schools. The curriculum of studies in the various courses has been arranged to harmonize with similar courses found in standard Catholic colleges. In accordance with time-honored Catholic educational ideals, the ancient classics are strongly emphasized, as no other study is so well adapted to give breadth of culture and intellectual de- velopment. The courses in Philosophy and Religion are under the direction of our esteemed Chaplain, Rev. Anselm Ortmann,
856 The Catholic Educational Eevibw
Ph. D. Throughout the entire collegiate course, Christian Doctrine, Bible and Church History are prescribed for Cath- olic students. A course of lectures, on subjects mainly his- torical and literary, will supplement the regular class work for the year 1911-12. These lectures may be attended by all the students of the Villa. The necessary steps are already being taken to have the college department approved and affiliated to the State University and to the Catholic University of Wash- ington."
A *^^PARBNTAL SCHOOL^^ IN WASHINGTON
A movement has already been started in Washington, D. C, for the establishment of a "Parental School" as a part of the public school system, and as a supplementary institution to the ungraded and atypical schools in caring for wayward and ab- normal schoolboys. Mr. Walter B. Patterson, a supervising principal of the public schools, who has charge also of the ungraded and atypical schools has espoused the cause and, it is said, has undertaken to report on the proposed new school to the superintendent. Mr. Patterson is quoted as having said in explanation of the idea: "The Tarental School' will be a place where we can take boys that simply cannot get along in the regular schools. They will stay there all the time, day and night. It is not to be a prison. It is a place where a bad boy, an unfortunate boy, or a boy who does not have a chance to see things in the right way can be taken. He will stay there at night and Saturdays and Sundays.
"Every now and then we run across a bad case in a boy who has to go to one of our ungraded schools because he simply cannot get along with the teacher. At the ungraded school he learns the lessons they teach there. He learns that, after all, there is some good in going to school. He begins to get a little ambition, and then Saturday and Sunday he stays at home with an influence that is so bad it knocks down all the school has built up in five days. There is a school of the kind we advocate in Baltimore, and it is working wonders. We have accom- plished fine things in the atypical and ungraded schools, but this parental school is needed, I believe."
Parents and educators will undoubtedly be deeply interested in this new phase of public school work, and Catholics par-
CuEBENT Events 857
ticularly will be not a little concerned in the conduct and op- eration of the "Parental School."
TRINITY COLLEGE NOTES
Trinity College, Washington, D. C, again broke its record for registration this year, having 155 students in the four regular classes. Of these, thirty are candidates for degrees in June. The formal opening of the scholastic year took place on Rosary Sunday, October 1, when Mass was celebrated by the Rt. Rev. Monsignor Thomas J. Shahan, Rector of the Cath- olic University, who preached an eloquent sermon on "The Duties and Privileges of a Student of Trinity College." The singing was by the College Choir. The feast of the Holy Rosary is further known at Trinity as Cap-and-Gown Sunday, because at the Mass of that day the Seniors first wear the academic costume. The day is marked for them by many graceful at- tentions from the other classes.
Trinity had the privilege of welcoming many of the distin- guished guests of the Catholic University on the occasion of the laying of the cornerstone of the Gibbons' Memorial Hall. On October 14 the Rt. Rev. Edward P. Allen, Bishop of Mobile, Ala., said Mass for the students.
SOUTHERN UNIVERSITY FOR WOMEN.
A movement has just been launched in New York City to raise half a million dollars to build a national^ monument in Washington to the memory of the northern women who suffered during the civil war. "College Topics" of the University of Virginia, commenting on this fact notes that "the heroism and noble self-sacrifice displayed by the women of the South during that bitter period are still unperpetuated in marble or stone. A movement to that end has been proposed, and some of its most ardent supporters are to be found here in Virginia, but so far as we know no official action, beyond the passing of reso- lutions favoring it, has ever been taken in the matter by either the Daughters or Sons of the Confederacy or any other south- ern organization.
"One of the most enthusiastic advocates of such a movement is Don P. Halsey of Lynchburg, a member of the state senate,
858 The Catholic Educational Eeview
at its last session. His idea of a fitting monument is that which was advanced bj a southern woman nearly twenty years ago at the Chicago World's Fair. She declared that it ought to take the form of a great memorial university for women. She called attention to the enduring benefits that would accrue from such an institution as contrasted with the unsubstantial character of a mere monumental shaft, built of bronze or mar- ble, however high. Don P. Halsey sees in the plan to establish a monument something besides a memorial; he sees in it a means of averting the necessity of the State founding a co- ordinate college for women at this university in order to afford the women of the State equal opportunity with the men for acquiring higher education."
PUBLIC LECTURES AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY
The fall course of public lectures at the Catholic University was inaugurated on October 19, when Professor P. J. Lennox of the department of English Language and Literature, ad- dressed a large audience on "Addison and the Modern Essay." On October 26, Rev. Dr. Charles Warren Currier lectured on "Calderon and the Spanish Drama." The course will be con- tinued as follows:
Nov. 3.— "Beowulf, the Anglo-Saxon Epic." Mr. Francis J. Hemeltj A. B,
^OY. 9. — "Marcus Tullius Cicero." Rev. Dr. John Damen Maguire.
Nov. 16.— "Aristophanes and Greek Political Comedy." Dr. George Melville Boiling.
Nov. 23. — "Eusebius of Caesarea, Father of Church His- tory." Very Rev. Dr. Patrick J. Healy.
Dec. 7. — "St. Augustine of Hippo." Rev. Dr. William Turner.
Dec. 14. — "Pascal as a Christian Apologist," Rev. Dr. George M. Sauvage, C. S. C.
HOLY CROSS ACADEMY_, DUNBARTON
Although the regular classes were resumed at Holy Cross Academy during the third week in September, the formal open- ing of this well-known Washington school did not take place
CuBKENT Events 859
until Rosary Sunday. On this beautiful feast, His Excellency, Archbishop Falconio, the Apostolic Delegate, assisted by the Very Rev. J. A. Zahm, C. S. C, said Mass in the convent chapel for the sisters and the student body. Monsignor Falconio preached a timely sermon that awakened a responsive chord in the hearts of his hearers. He dwelt upon the value of a Christian education — an education in the true sense of the word — one which draws out the faculties of the mind and soul, and leads them to the source of knowledge — God himself. His Excellency also showed that not great talents but great in- dustry points the way to success in the intellectual as well as in the business world. After breakfast he held an informal reception in the library and spoke to the teachers on some of the live issues of the day.
Through the kindness of His Eminence, Cardinal Gibbons, the sisters and resident pupils enjoyed the privilege of the Dominican Indulgence, and hundreds of visits were made to the chapel from Vespers on Saturday until Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament closed the devotion on Sunday evening.
Rt. Rev. Monsignor Shahan of the Catholic University was the first visitor of the scholastic year. He ^pent some time with the graduates and encouraged them in their new duties. At the close of his inspiring talk, they knelt for his blessing and took it as an earnest of the year's success. The Class of 1912 also enjoyed a lecture by Dr. Zahm on the "Influence of Women in Pagan Greece and Christian Rome." This is the beginning of a series promised by the Rev. Chaplain.
On Columbus Day the seniors attended the laying of the cornerstone of the Gibbons' Memorial Hall. The following evening Archbishop Farley of New York, Bishop Maas of Cov- ington, Ky., Monsignor Shahan, Doctor Pace and Doctor Dougherty of the Catholic University, Monsignor Lewis of New York, and Monsignor McGolrick of Brooklyn, N. Y., were entertained at the Academy. During the past week the pupils' Mass has been said by Archbishop Ireland of St. Paul, Minn., and Bishop McGolrick of Duluth, Minn. Among other late visitors to the school were Bishop Garrigan of Sioux City, la. Mgr. Lee, Mgr. Mackin and the Hon. Hannis Taylor of Wash- ington; Dr. Kerby, Dr. McCormick and Dr. Carrigan of the
860 The Catholic Educational. Eeview
Catholic University ; Dr. Burns, C. S. C. of Holy Cross College, and Dr. McGarry, C. S. C. of Notre Dame University, Ind.
The death of Miss Edgarina Hastings, Class 1904, leaves a void in the ranks of the Alumnae that will be hard to fill. A pupil of Holy Cross for twelve years, she had endeared herself to teachers and companions by her brilliant mind, her simple manners, and her perfect unselfishness. On October 9 the funeral services were conducted by her cousin, the Rev. E. A. Hannan, of St. Martin's Church, Washington. At the hour of the services the graduates held a memorial meeting in their classroom, after which they gathered in the chapel where the "Way of the Cross" was offered for the repose of her soul. A spray of Annunciation lilies and violets tied with lavender and white, the school colors, was sent in the name of the Alumnge — a silent tribute of the love of those who mourn for her at Holy Cross.
Patrick J. McCormick.
REVIEWS AND NOTICES.
The Teacher's Encyclopaedia. Edited by A. P. Laurie, M. A., D. So. In seven volumes. Vol. I, pp. xviii, 234; Vol. II, pp. X, 240. London, Caxton Publishing Co., 1911.
As the editor announces in the introduction to Vol. I, this work is a departure from the usual plan of encyclopedia-mak- ing. Instead of following the alphabetical order, the subjects are arranged in groups ; and the result is a series of essays or monographs each treating some phase or problem or move- ment in education. The introduction also outlines in a general way the scope of the work, but no complete list of subjects is given nor are the several groups very clearly defined. Once the alphabetical order was abandoned, it would seem natural to expect a systematic presentation and this would have called for at least one article in which the meaning, or meanings, of education would be discussed and the mutual bearings of prin- ciples, methods, history, curricula, administration and other factors quite clearly exhibited. This would have given a sur- vey of the entire field and might have provided or at least sug- gested some criteria for the reader's guidance in the study of special topics. But no such article appears in either of the two volumes before us.
It is also to be regretted that the principle of classification on which the groups are built is not more fully explained. As it is, one finds some difficulty in deciding whether the sequence of papers is meant to be logical, psychological or pedagogical. The series in Vol. I includes : child psychology ; moral instruc- tion and training in schools; the study of the Bible in the schools; general method; the teacher in relation to school methods and expedients ; the kindergarten ; the infant school ; dictation; on the teaching of drawing. Each of these is im- portant and some of the articles are excellent ; but the arrange- ment will hardly serve as a model lesson in orderly exposition. Vol. II deals with the teaching of the several school subjects and contains some practical suggestions. Both volumes are illustrated and a bibliography is added to each article. Some
862 The Catholic Educational Eeview
American authors are mentioned, but there is not so far any contribution by an American writer.
Without examining any of the articles in detail, one must note as significant the following statements in the intro- duction :
"These two movements, then, the scientific and the social, which may be described as the two great ethical movements of our time, are profoundly modifying our educational system, and moreover they are so new in their application that there is much that is yet undecided. There are many problems there- fore only in the course of solution, and consequently we have to offer in these volumes not a complete answer to many of these questions, but, perhaps what is more interesting, the new ideas in process of formation, before they have crystallized in final form. One of the profoundest problems which is always present to those engaged in education is how to teach all that the child should know, and yet at the same time in no way to limit the child's initiative and freshness of mental develop- ment. This aim should always be before the teacher in every class, but it reaches farther than the mere subjects of the classroom, because when we come to the question of the ethical and spiritual training of the child we have to ask ourselves whether it should not be our aim to produce a man who, though he has been surrounded by the atmosphere of all the best thought of the past, has yet got a fresh mind to bring to the profoundest problems of life. It is this question which underlies the struggle for supremacy over the schools that is going on at present, and while this struggle continues the dis- putants do not seem to have time to study the question of how religious training can best be given to the child. This accusa- tion cannot, however, be made against the Order of Jesuits, and consequently their school system is of the greatest interest to all students of education, because, whether we take their view of the ultiamte object to be reached or not, we find that they have thoroughly thought out the problem of how to pro- duce the result they aim at. It is for this reason that the most interesting articles by Father Maher, on the Jesuit Sys- tem of Education and on Stonyhurst, have been included in the Encyclopedia."
Eeviews and Notices 863
• Catholics both in England and in America will follow with deep interest the movement that sets out by recognizing the need of moral education, though as yet it has not, outside of Catholic schools, taken any very definite direction. If the new Encyclopedia, in its latest volumes, continues to emphasize this most essential part of all education, it will certainly render service to parents and teachers alike.
Edward A. Pace.
Lands of the Southern Cross, a Visit to South America, by Rev. Charles Warren Currier, Ph. D., Washington, D. C, Spanish- Americap Publication Society, 1911, pp. 401.
There is a growing interest throughout the United States in the affairs of South America. The Bureau of American Re- publics in Washington has already accomplished much in the direction of establishing better trade relations with our south- ern neighbors. The cutting of the canal has also had its share in directing public attention southward. To those who were in the habit of thinking of South America as semi-barbarous, facts which have recently gained currency in this country must prove a series of surprises and must develop a desire for reliable information concerning Spanish- America. The author of the present work is eminently qualified to meet this demand. The honorable part which he has taken in previous congresses of Americanists established for him an international reputa- tion. It was eminently fitting, therefore, that the government of the United States should have appointed him as one of its representatives to the recent international congress of Ameri- canists at Buenos Aires, and it was no less fitting that he should represent the Catholic University at that meeting of savants.
Dr. Currier has placed the English-speaking world under a lasting debt of gratitude to him for the splendid volume before us. The title in itself scarcely prepares one for the wealth of information which the book contains. From its pages the his- torian frequently speaks, outlining in a few brief paragraphs the salient features of the history of each country which he visited. The aborigines, the early discoverers, the struggles for its national life, the fauna and fiora, the commerce and in-
864 The Catholic Educational Review
dustries, as well as the manners and customs of the present population, are all woven into a narrative that is full of liter- ary charm and that is kept from being heavy in spite of its wealth of fact by the imagination and sympathetic treatment. Dr. Currier's itinerary almost encircles South America. The Catholic reader will be especially grateful to Dr. Currier for his sympathetic and intelligent treatment of such topics as "The Church in Argentina, Education in Argentina, the Church and Education in Chile," and many other topics which have been habitually misrepresented by writers who have little or no understanding of the genius of the Latin- American peoples, who are building up such a splendid civilization in South America. "The Lands of the Southern Cross" should find a very wide circulation. No intelligent Catholic in the United States can afford to be without it.
Thomas Edward Shields.
The Second Spring, a Sermon by John Henry Newman, Edited with introduction, notes and exercises by Francis P. Don-, nelly, S. J., New York, Longmans, Green and Co., 1911, vii+97.
Father Donnelly, in preparing this sermon for the English classes in our secondary schools, has not only rendered a serv- ice to the teachers of English, but he has set an example in the right direction which should be imitated. English literature has too long been exploited by the enemies of the Church. It is high time that Catholics should search the field for themselves for material suited to our classrooms.
The New Hudson Shakespeare, Twelfth Night, or What You Will, inirod'^tion and notes by Henry Norman Hud- son, LL. D., edited and revised by Ebenezer Charlton Black, LL. D. (Glasgow), Boston, Ginn and Company, 1911, pp. lxil+129.
The Catholic Educational Review
DECEMBER, 1911
THE CHEISTIAN IDEAL OF EDUCATION
The student of the history of education, if he is to derive profit from his study, should not be content with ascertaining the facts about educational systems, but should strive to separate from the mass of historical data the content, the method, and the ideal, in each period and in each country whose educational institutions and systems he studies. He should devote special attention to the ideal, which, he will find, dominates and determines both the content and the method. And he should not hesitate to criticise the ideal; he should try to form an estimate of it, and compare it with other ideals that preceded it or followed it. The Catholic student is justi- fied in adopting the Christian ideal and using it both retrospectively and prospectively. That is, he should judge pre-Christian systems according to the degree in which they approximate the Christian ideal, or embody one element of it, and he should estimate the different educational systems of Christian times according as they deviate from the Christian ideal or exhibit some phase of the historical development of that ideal. What, then, is the Christian ideal of education and how does it stand related to pre-Christian ideals?
In the first place, pagan education never fully grasped the principle that each individual human being has an independent personal value. Education among savages and primitive races subjected the individual to tribal cus-
866 The Catholic Educational. Eeview
torn. It knew no educational principle except that of imitation, and the imitation which it recognized was of the most elementary, static, unprogressive, mechanical, soulkilling kind. Its model was the adult member of the tribe, and its method aimed at the exact reproduction in the young savage of the manner and measure of success exhibited by the adult. It placed no premium on prog- ress, condemning all innovations as not only harmful but in some indefinite way, unholy. When education aimed at recapitulation, as it did among the Chinese, the re- capitulation also was mechanical, and left no room for individual departure from the standard imposed by cus- tom or national tradition. The Hindus and the Egyp- tians educated for the caste, the fixed social or religious determination of values. They subordinated the aspira- tions and needs of the individual to the requirements of the social or religious institution. They took into con- sideration neither the present constitution, mental and physical, of the individual, nor the possibilities that lay before him in the future. With their attention fixed steadily on the past, they strove to fit the pupil to carry on unimpaired, but also without augment or improve- ment, the heritage of the past: they did not encourage him either to add to his inheritance or to improve his own condition by the acquisition of qualities that would make him individually better or happier. The Persians and the Spartans educated for citizenship. They broke to some extent with fixed tradition and the restrictions of the caste system. They were consequently progressive along the lines of progress which they chose. Our criticism of their educational system is that they drew those lines too closely around the individual. They as- signed too narrow a scope to human endeavor. For man is intended not merely to be a citizen or a soldier. As we understand it, man's destiny implies the development of factors spiritual, morale intellectual and physical
The Cheistian Ideal of Education 867
which do, indeed, make him a good citizen and a good soldier, but which make him also a good man, and con- sequently a good citizen or a good soldier. The Greeks and the Eomans understood this. They did not exclude good citizenship from their educational ideal. At the same time, they aimed higher than citizenship by educat- ing for human excellence according to a purely human standard. The Greeks educated for beauty and happi- ness, the Romans for success and effectiveness. They both included civic virtue and devotion to the service of the state in their standard of excellence. Nevertheless, we judge that standard to be too low, because, aiming at what is purely natural, it was inevitable that they should fall below the standard of nature, like the marksman who, aiming directly at the mark, hits below the mark, owing to the force of gravitation. The Greeks and Ro- mans made education free, by removing the limitations and restrictions of tribe, caste and national custom. But they did not make it entirely free. For, they exposed to death, that is, murdered, weak and deformed children; they slaughtered the defenceless slave and captive, ** butchered to make a Roman holiday ''; they treated woman as a chattel; in a word they failed to recognize that each and every individual, no matter how apparently useless to the state, has a claim on society and a right to life and happiness.
This Christianity did. It taught from the beginning that God is Father of all mankind, that every child bom into the world is impressed with the image and likeness of God, that human life is a sacred thing, and that no system of education may be tolerated which overlooks or forgets the infinite value of a soul, even though it be the soul of a slave, an outcast, or a weak and defective infant. Freedom means the recognition of the value of the indi- vidual. Greece introduced freedom in the political, the intellectual, the moral and the esthetic order. But it
868 The Catholic Educational Eeview
furnished no enduring foundation of freedom. Chris- tianity, by insisting on the value of every human soul, granted the first magna charta, the first great charter of freedom, and can claim what no other institution can claim, that it first made man truly free, with the freedom of the children of God. This, then, is the first point in our description of the Christian ideal : Christianity eman- cipated the individual from the restrictions of tribe, caste, or nation and the limitations of imperfect human stand- ards.
In the next place, Christianity, as is well known, struck at the root of some of the grossest evils of paganism. It taught the sanctity of home. Even among the Romans, whose worship of the household deities {lares et penates) typified a hallowed instinct of domestic ties, the home was but imperfectly consecrated. It was domiaated by the irresponsible power, the possible tyranny, of the father, who ruled by virtue of the patria potestas, and could rear his children or discard them to perish by starvation, as he saw fit. In Christian times the power of the head of the family has been limited not only in law but also ia conscience. His authority is not absolute but fiduciary. He is responsible to God for the lives and souls of his chil- dren, and while they are Lq their minority he is bound both by law and by conscience to support them. Chris- tianity taught the sacredness of the marriage tie. We know what the institution of marriage was in imperial Rome. The satirists and the comic poets found in the frequency and facility of divorce a fruitful theme for their jibes, and the moralists deplored in vain the promis- cuity, for it amounted to that, which had taken the place of the stern conjugal fidelity of earlier days. Christian- ity taught that marriage is a sacred thing, a sacrament typified by no less august a union than that of Christ with his Church. It taught, and still teaches, when, as in the Catholic Church, it is faithful to its traditions,
The Christian Ideal of Education 869
that the marriage tie is indissoluble, and that divorce is as unchristian as it is opposed to the best interests of the state. Christianity taught the sacredness of child-life. The Eomans had, indeed, a saying, ''Maxima pueris debetur reverentia/' They meant that older peo- ple should forbear in the presence of children, and not sully youthful souls with words and thoughts destructive of childlike innocence. They did not, however, value the soul of a child as Christianity has taught us to do. They were allowed by their laws to sacrifice the lives of children whom they considered defective. We believe that every soul has a priceless value, that every human being has a right to the life which God has given him, and that when Christ took little children in his arms and blessed them He consecrated child-life and made it a thing sacred and inviolate.
One could go farther in this comparison between pagan and Christian ideas. Enough has, however, been said to establish the point that Christianity brought a remedy for some of the grossest evils of paganism, evils which had a direct influence on pagan ideals of education.
In the third place, Christianity taught in a definite maimer that there is a life beyond the grave, and that there are, consequently, values spiritual, moral and in- tellectual, which are superior to merely temporal and economic values. * ^ What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soulT' Life and its interests are to be judged, human institutions customs and observances, above all, education which is a preparation for life — all these are to be judged, not by the standard of time, but by the standard of eternity. The spiritual interests of man are supreme. Here we have the heart, so to speak, of the whole subject, the dominant idea in Christianity, by which all pre-Christian education is judged and found wanting and which, in the various phases of its historical development, is the key
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to the imderstandiiig of the history of education in Chris- tian times. Spiritual interests are supreme. The poor, ignorant creature who, in the midst of trials and suffer- ings, gives expression to the optimistic sentiment, ''What does it all matter, if one has the grace of God, ' ' is wiser than all the sages, and unknowingly sums up the whole philosophy of Christian education. Spiritual interests take precedence over the physical, the intellectual, and, if a conflict were possible, even over the moral.
Here, however, a serious misunderstanding is to be avoided. A thoughtful writer, comparing these modern times with the Ages of Faith, characterizes our era as dominated by ''worldliness'' and describes the Middle Ages as dominated by the spirit of ''otherworldliness,'' that is, the spirit which puts the interests of the next life above the interests of this. Otherworldliness, if we are to retain the term, is not incompatible with the pursuit of happiness and success in this world. There are per- sons, some of them men of distinction in the realm of scholarship, who are so given to exaggeration of state- ment that they seem never to see but one side to any question. They talk as if faith were incompatible with science, forgetting that men like Pasteur managed to reconcile the highest scientific attainments with the sim- plest Catholic faith. They contend that the Church is subversive of national ideals, in spite of the facts in our own history and that of other nations, which go to show that a loyal son of the Catholic Church may serve his country faithfully and even make the patriot's supreme sacrifice of offering up his life in his country's cause. They say that a belief in Providence excludes effort, thrift and industry, overlooking the examples of Catho- lic Belgium, Catholic Ehineland and Bavaria, and our own farming or industrial settlements of Catholics, where arduous labor and patient toil are inspired by the belief that God is the giver of all good gifts. They argue that
The Cheistian- Ideal of Education 871
saintliness is incompatible with sense, that belief in miraculous healing eliminates all need of a reasonable care of one 's health. All these are misunderstandings or misrepresentations. Christianity, while it educates for the life to come, and makes spiritual interests to be su- preme, does not withdraw from the domain of education those things which belong to culture, refinement, happi- ness and success in the realm of nature and humanity. Herbert Spencer defined education as ^'Preparation for complete living.'' The Christian educator accepts this description, but insists that no scheme of education is complete, or prepares for '^ complete living'' unless it prepares for the life to come as well as for this life. Christianity, therefore, does not suppress or destroy what was of value in pre-Christian systems of education. Whatever was good and useful in the principle of imita- tion as we find it among savages is preserved and utilized in a higher form in Christian education, where the heroes of Christian legend and story and the sacred human na- ture of Christ Himself are set before us as our models, with the infinite prefection of God as the ''one divine event" towards which all humanity is striving. Educa- tion for caste, social order, national tradition and relig- ious custom had the advantage of preserving and incul- cating the conservative virtues. That advantage is not discarded but retained in Christian education. Indeed, in the estimation of thoughtful men today, the greatest and the most beneficent conservative force in the modern world is the Catholic Church. Sparta and Persia edu- cated for citizenship. Christianity, by aiming at the for- mation of the perfect Christian, in whom honesty, indus- try, thrift, sobriety and unselfish devotion to the interests of others are cardinal virtues, lays the foundation of perfect citizenship and supplies the moral support with- out which civil authority would be futile and its efforts for law and order weak and ineffectual. The Greeks and
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Eomans educated for human excellence. Christianity does not neglect, much less condemn, the cultivation of the beautiful and the pursuit of success. There is noth- ing in the Christian code to discourage young men, or young women either, from striving to attain beauty, strength and efficiency in the physical order. There is no conflict between Christian meekness of spirit and healthy muscular strength. Christianity does not con- demn, nor does it discourage, the education of the mind, the development of the fine arts, the growth and develop- ment of man's power of thinking and feeling. It does not discourage ability or success in business or in indus- try, in commerce or in the useful arts. What Christian- ity did, and does, is to add to these educational ideals a new element, the spiritual. And this addition is not mere augment. It introduces a transforming element. For the spiritual vitalizes, unifies, and organizes the physical, intellectual and moral elements of character; it gives them that cohesiveness, that liability to rapid and thorough assimilation which is so important in educa- tional matters. The human being to be educated is organically one. One body, one mind, one heart, one soul, above all, one personality, constitute the individual to be educated. The spiritual force of Christianity co- ordinates these various elements, subordinates the less important to the more important, subjects the incidental and accidental to the essential and indispensable, and thus facilitates to a wonderful degree the task of the educator.
Finally, Christianity, by means of the Counsels of Perfection, sets up a definite ideal of perfection towards which humanity is to strive. The official Church never failed to distinguish between these ideals, which, although they were to be the inspiration of all Christians, were to be actually attained by the few, and the laws of conduct, or precepts, which were to be observed by all. Her view
The Cheistian Ideal of Education 873
is that poverty, charity and obedieilce in their highest form of complete self abnegation are not to be imposed as obligations on all the faithful. The counsels are for the chosen few, and are a matter of individual calling, or vocation. When these counsels were institutionalized, as they were in monasticism, there was never the inten- tion to drive all men and women into monasteries, al- though it was intended that the example of so great per- fection in the few should diffuse its influence over all the Church and benefit sinner as well as saint. This, too, has been misunderstood. Perhaps the occasion for the misunderstanding was the inordinate zeal of some Chris- tian writers. Some of those writers failed to see the world as it is. They pictured it as steeped in iniquity, and consequently, were led to believe and to say that no one could save his soul except in the monastic state. Such was never the belief of the official Church. We should look to the decision of competent ecclesiastical authority and not be misled by occasional exaggerations of writers who were inspired by their own fears, and though occasionally we find in the corrupt manners of the times partial justification for their opinions, we should always remember that their judgment is not that of the Church.
The counsels of perfection furnished a definite ideal towards which human nature could tend, and thus be pre- vented from falling below human standards, as it did in pre-Christian times. In a word, then, to the ideals based on physical, intellectual and moral values, Christianity added the spiritual, which, while it neither subverts these nor supplants what is good in them, adds to them, vital- izes them, and thus brings them up to a higher and nobler form of activity. Christianity solved the problem of ed- ucation in a manner at once simple, decisive, and perma- nent. There was something hesitating, halting, fluctuat- ing about pagan ideals. Christ, by instituting his Church,
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which was to continue his work, gave permanency and consistency as well as authority to the Christian ideal. Ever ancient and ever new, the Christian Church has been confronted with a variety of educational problems, she has met in each age conditions entirely new, and she has met them with a resourcefulness and a wealth of expedients which could come from no human source. But, always true to her mission, her solution of every prob- lem has been: The spiritual interests are supreme. **What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and suffer the loss of his own soulT' She has paid dearly in misrepresentation and calumny for the mainte- nance of that principle. Her children have paid dearly for it in the temporal sacrifices they make. But the price is well paid, and will be paid, as long as it is re- quired.
William Turneb.
THE EELATION OF THE SEMINAEY TO THE GENERAL EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM CON- SIDERED FROM THE SEMINARY VIEWPOINT*
The broad character of our subject is manifest from the fact that it alone is to engage the attention of this distinguished body during the several sessions of the convention. The word relation implying a plurality of terms, it is natural that more than one view of the subject should be presented, particularly as there is some diffi- culty in judging one's own position without aid from others. Outside views are necessary and welcome, but at the same time it is equally important that the inside view be presented. Those who are engaged in seminary work are familiar with its every detail ; actual experience enables them to form an accurate estimate of the means and methods of accomplishing their trust, as well as of the difficulties that may interfere with the success of their labors.
In this paper we shall endeavor to give expression to some thoughts on our subject as it appears to those whose life-work is devoted to the training of aspirants to the sacred ministry. No claim is put forth to give an exhaustive treatment, rather, speaking as one less wise, would I merely bespeak your generous attention while I present such thoughts as will serve as a preliminary to a discussion by those better versed and more competent to shed light upon a matter of singular importance to us all.
Yes, the subject is important and for that reason alone it is incumbent upon me at the outset to determine as
*Read before the Seminary Department of the Catholic Educational As- sociation, Chicago, June, 1911.
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clearly as may be the exact question at issue. In this I shall be guided by the suggestion accompanying the re- quest that I should write this paper. We who are en- gaged in seminary work are here primarily to consider from our point of view what the seminary can and should do to further interest in Catholic educational work among those who are about to enter upon their active labors in the Lord's vineyard. What is our responsibility and what our task, that the young priest may go forth in the promotion of Catholic school work?
It is not, then, within the scope of this discussion to determine conditions that make for coordination of Cath- olic institutions. In a great measure that has been ac- complished in other years. Our work is so distinctive that for us this problem is greatly simplified. A definite goal is always before us, much authoritative guidance is at our disposal, many erroneous paths are closed for us and hence, while recognizing the inestimable value and relentless need of coordination in all our work pertaining to education, still I say that such is not the topic pre- sented to us today. Neither are we directly concerned with the questions of a purely internal character, some- thing that concerns ourselves alone. Questions of dis- cipline, of method, of spiritual direction, of uniformity of standard and of conditions for entrance — all these have been ably discussed, and while ever capable of greater advancement, yet they can concern us at present only in so far as they bear on the question as I have already stated it.
This Association stands for organization in the broad field before it, it aims to secure concerted effort, to con- serve the vast energies operating in the name and under the inspiration of Catholicity. This general idea underlies our present investigation; it is presumed there is an eagerness amongst us not merely to secure success in our own particular branch, specialty or institution, but that
The Eelation op the Seminaey 877
with wider view and more generous enthusiasm we shall so act as to make our tafluence and our efforts a potent agency in the general campaign to uplift the hearts and minds of men to the things that are worth while.
Such a disposition exists ; there is little reason for com- plaint, rather may we congratulate ourselves that the very fact of this gather iQg is ample evidence that the will to spend and be spent is strong amongst us.
ProceediQg on this assumption, we are to ask our- selves what we and the institutions we represent can and should be in order that our young priests may be sent out by us, zealous and capable to the fullest measure of carrying on, upbuilding and promoting the work of solv- ing the problems in the field of Catholic education. It may be answered by some that there is nothing of a specific character to be accomplished by the seminary in this respect. Only in so far as it promotes the pri- mary end of its existence does it come into relation with this more general problem. Agaia, it may be answered that all depends upon the seminary ; that the key to suc- cess is in its hands ; that failure to make the best of our opportunities in the educational world must be imputed to negligence or failure in the seminary. The priest, we are told, is the most potent factor in. promoting the wel- fare of Catholic schools, and the priest will be in a great measure what his seminary training has made him. Hence the question cannot be ^* sidestepped''; the issue is placed unequivocally before us, and it must be met.
The answers above suggested are too extreme to be wholly true. While the entire responsibility for the suc- cess or failure of Catholic educational work cannot be laid at the door of the semiaary, yet its influence is real and our problem is to find a means of making it more effective and lasting. Particularly are the early years of one's life in the priesthood inspired by the ideas and habits imbibed and acquired during the formative period.
878 The Catholic Educationali Eeview
As we are principally concerned just now with these early- years, it is clear that there must be some relation between the seminary and the general educational problem. Yet our responsibility is not unlimited. The seminary is not a normal school, nor is it intended to be a college for the formation of the technical teacher. Its scope is too com- prehensive to permit us to devote our time and our energy to the task of equipping our students for the work of a professional instructor. These assertions can be regard- ed as little more than commonplaces, yet they are serv- iceable in helping us to define the limits within which our responsibility lies and in consequence will serve as a par- tial criterion for the adoption of the means we may take to bring about the desired results. Let us then recognize that while other agencies are not to be ignored, there is a measure of responsibility laid upon us, and something can and ought to be done by us to render more efficient the interest of young and zealous priests in educational matters.
At this juncture it may not be amiss to ask the very pertinent question: are we to go on the presumption that we have not been doing enough in this par- ticular ? Must we begin with a confession of having dis- regarded or lost sight of our obligation to train priests who will be ready and eager to enter upon this work? No general answer can be given, but I believe that there is no complete forgetfulness of this feature of our work. A partial remissness may at times be noticed, a tendency to subordinate unduly this particular function may be charged against us, but at the same time Catholic educa- tion is going on, it is advancing, it has become aggres- sive, and the priests of our American Church are the champions that have made it such. And if such be the case, who will deny to the seminaries their meed of recognition for the existence of such a condition?
Our priests are men of education, and educators, not
The Eelation op the Seminaky 879
merely in the broad sense of diffusing enlightened ideas on important soul topics, but in the more restricted con- ception of the term that implies their personal interest in the proper mental training of their people. Facts are eloquent in proclaiming this truth, this very gathering, this nation-wide Association with its annual sessions, de- clares in tones most energetic that our priests are wide awake to the importance of our educational problems. We in this Department form an integral element of the Association, and our presence here attests most forcibly our desire to aid in every manner possible the progress of every undertaking that makes for the educational bet- terment of our brethren in the Faith.
The picture, then, is not all shadow, there is not complete indifference ; no, nor is there any great measure of remiss- ness of which to blame ourselves when called upon to face our responsibility with regard to the present subject. Yet, when we examine what we have been doing and when, on the other hand, we consider the urgent necessity of dealing wisely with the living educational problems con- fronting the Church at the present hour, we ought to find ample room for improvement ; perfection is not yet, more can and should be accomplished by us in our Christ-like work to secure a more insistent order in this particular respect.
The relations between the pastor and the school have been discussed in a former session and in another Department of this Association. The discussion bore not upon the existence of such a relation but upon particular features of it, for its existence is no matter of contro- versy. What was said on that occasion can be applied to the assistant pastor or the young priest with almost the same force as it was applied to the pastor of a normal city parish. There is no need of repeating in this paper what was then said, but it is evident that the newly or-
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dained minister of Christ must at the outset be prepared to assume such relation.
This preparation in so far as it concerns the seminary, consists first of all in the formation of a state of mind. The years of preparation are not intended merely to af- ford an opportunity of learning certain truths and solv- ing certain scholastic problems, but they are required in order that the candidate for Holy Orders may be moulded and fashioned after the most exalted human type. The resultant state of mind is one in accordance with the means employed to form it; and those means are the expression of all that is best in the Catholic conception of mental and moral development. It is therefore only natural that the Catholic priest should be the highest exponent of the worth of educational forces, that his interest in the agencies that have helped to make him what he is should be most keen, his devotion to them most intense.
Normally the young man will leave the halls of the seminary with a deep-rooted esteem for his studies; he manifests an eagerness to continue his labors and seeks guidance concerning the course he would best adopt. He knows, too, that their worth is not for him alone ; that in due measure they are necessary for all, if his labor of salvation is to be fruitful among the people. The true understanding of education has been brought home to him consciously or unconsciously ; and while he might not be able to pen the article, still he has made his own ideas such as are expressed in Dr. Pacers luminous article on Catholic education (Cath. Ency., Vol. 5.). He wishes to be no obscurantist, he is conscious of his commission to go and teach, and he understands that such a trust im- plies the right on the part of all the people to know and to be instructed. While it is primarily his duty to in- culcate the truths of faith, it is not possible for him to make that teaching effective unless the ground is duly
The Eelation of the Seminaby 881
prepared for the seed that is to spring up to eternal life.
Knowing this, he values justly the importance and dignity of proper educational work; he sees how indis- pensable it is for the expansion of the kingdom of God, and he recognizes moreover how serious are the obstacles placed in his way if a false system of training is allowed to prevail. He, least of all, will tolerate a divorce be- tween intellectual and moral instruction; he knows that religion alone can provide a sound basis for any solid morality ; and with his conviction that education is meant to be the great civilizing force, he is ready to proclaim, even though inexperienced, that no real civis can be formed, no real social organization can subsist, if aught save the principles underlying Catholic education serve as the guiding star for a nation's leaders.
All this is fundamental, but it is a positive element, a dynamic element, and so indispensable that all else is use- less without it. Our young priest may not be wholly au courant with particular phases of the problem he is to face, but at the same time he can hardly be presumed to be in complete ignorance of actual issues. The majority of our seminarians will not leave their Alma Mater with- out a general knowledge of the history of Catholic edu- cation in latter days, they may be more or less conversant with the particular struggles that have marked the course of the last century, and above all they may be in no need of conviction of the utter inadequacy of our own public school system to fit our fellow Americans to be what the God of nations expects them to be. Such, then, is the first contribution of the seminary to the equipment of our young priest to begin his labors in the cause of Catholic education. He will go forth endowed with a state of mind that is admirably adapted to the successful prosecution of such an undertaking, and that endowment is the normal resultant of his seminary training. The picture is not too great a departure from reality; there
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are exceptions, no doubt, and comparatively few may ex- press a liking for the professorial chair. Yet such a state of mind can reasonably be expected to characterize by far the greater number of those we send forth to continue the mission of the greatest of all Teachers.
If there is room for improvement in this respect, it is to be secured by a more earnest endeavor on our part to foster habits of study among those entrusted to our care, and to make use of the excellent means suggested by the gentlemen participating in the discussion on this topic during the Convention at Cincinnati. A reference to the full report of that meeting will provide us with such sug- gestions as may be serviceable.
It is not my place to try to enumerate a list of the burn- ing issues now agitating the minds of educators. We can at the present only suggest some general means by which the seminarians may, during their preparatory career, be made fully acquainted with the particular prob- lems with which they will have to deal. Before mention- ing these means in detail I wish to give expression to the conviction that it is not practicable to add anything more to the curriculum with a view of preparing our students distinctively for educational work. Indeed, what could be added, unless a course in pedagogy or catechetical in- struction? The former is attended with so many diffi- culties as to verge upon the impossible, and the latter though introduced in one form or another, has but an indirect bearing on our subject in the sense in which I have presented it. However, I do not wish to be under- stood as advocating a negative or repressive policy in the matter, and therefore I think I may call attention to the following means or opportunities of securing a live- lier interest in the general subject of education among our seminarians.
I. In every institution for the education of the clergy there is a course in pastoral theology, intended to
The Eelation op the Seminary 883
give practical suggestions concerning the various fea- tures of priestly work. In such a course the subject of education and school work can scarcely be disregarded. Now, it seems that a goodly portion of a year's work can be devoted to the subject, and an experienced professor should be able to impress upon his class the importance of such work in the ministry and provide the means of becoming acquainted with the actual conditions confront- ing us at the present time. Particularly will it be possi- ble in such a course to impart such general guiding prin- ciples as will enable the future pastor to guard against many mistakes in dealing with the special phase of the problem that he will meet when beginning his work. The relation of priest to pupils and to teachers can be dwelt upon in a general way, and the matter of coordination and method can be treated with sufficient fullness to in- sure the desirable degree of uniformity. No professor worthy of the name will fail to offer the best that he has to encourage and direct those placed under his guidance in this branch. If he be a man of practical experience in parish and school work — a quality eminently desira- ble— he will give his class the benefit of his own labors, and will in a large measure contribute to the formation of a state of mind and of will calculated to produce most gratifying results in the educational field. Is there not room for improvement in this department of our work? Are other topics of such greater importance that this one should be unmercifully sacrificed?
II. It is the custom, I presume, in most seminaries to give lectures or conferences to the students on subjects pertaining to their spiritual advancement and to the char- acter of the work they are to undertake. Here, then, it would seem, is another opportunity for emphasizing the importance of educational work in the sacred ministry. A well regulated and methodical course of conferences every year or two would not fail to be productive of re-
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suits that would blossom forth in the fulness of their beauty and worth during the years that follow the years of theological study. The ^ve or six years which occupy the attention of the ordinary seminarian afford ample op- portunity for the consideration of such a subject. Thought and energy will be necessary to make such con- ferences forcible and interesting, but it is not too much to ask of any one heartily devoted to the work of forming competent laborers in the cause of religion.
III. It is recommended by many of wide and thought- ful experience that the professors should frequently min- gle with their students during the hours of recreation. Aloofness on their part is considerad to be productive of more harm than good. Whatever may be one's personal opinion, it would seem that if there is to be such associa- tion during free hours, no more commendable subject for conversation could be suggested than the work and prac- tical issues of education. At such a time there is an absence of restraint, and consequently a better oppor- tunity for the communication of ideas and views on this topic, views which cannot fail to be deeply interesting to our young men, especially if the conversation be directed to some actual question or event that is engaging the at- tention of men who are devoting their energies to the de- velopment of educational work.
IV. No one can gainsay the influence of magazines and newspapers. In one sense their share in shaping the opinions of men is out of all proportion. Yet, there are good magazines and good newspapers and there are some that manifest a most commendable interest and sound practical judgment in matters pertaining to our subject. Should we not encourage those entrusted to us to make all lawful use of publications? Can it possibly be ob- jected that the recent regulations from Eome would in- terfere with such a plan? I think not, and I would be- speak a keener appreciation for reviews and papers that
The Eelation of the Seminary 885
manifest a purpose of promoting such work. Ought not a publication such as the newly founded Catholic Educa- tional Review be of interest and of value to our young men? Has it not set up a standard that merits general approval? If so, who will deny its worth in promoting the purpose for which we are here assembled? Other magazines and papers also set aside a special department to educational work and report the latest items of infor- mation in this province. In so far as they do this they are helpful to us and in one way or another may be used to the advantage of our students, so that they may be better able to understand existing conditions in the educational world. There is said to be a conspiracy of silence on the part of the secular press against Catholicism, and while the truth of the assertion applies to European countries rather than to our own land, there is a possibility of util- izing to greater advantage the opportunity afforded by the great daily, opportunities that the priest ought not to slight but to grasp and demand insistently, in order that the whole truth concerning our educational efforts may be made known and appreciated.
V. Another excellent means of presenting and dis- cussing ideas relative to our present subject is to be found in the academies, seminars, or societies that are to be found in nearly all our institutions. These periodic meetings of students and professors to listen to the read- ing of an essay on topics pertaining to seminary work, are admirably adapted to the purpose of emphasizing the importance of educational work. Why not occasion- ally assign for discussion subjects that deal with actual educational questions? They can scarcely fail to be in- teresting ; indeed, will be much more so than subjects con- cerning the time-worn topics that are ordinarily assigned for discussion. Delving into speculative matters — the Quaestiones Domesticae — is not without its disciplinary value for the average student, but practical matters, and
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in particular educational matters, will have a wider ap- peal and more lasting results should be obtained. This I regard as one of the best means we have for promoting the work in which we are now concerned.
VI. Lastly, by way of suggestion, I would counsel the establishment by this Association of a committee or body of lecturers, composed of men devoting their energies to educational problems, men who may' be called upon from time to time to go from one seminary to another to talk to the students on subjects of this order. The plan might be feasible, at least I regard it as worthy of mention on this occasion. The cooperation of the rectors of our va- rious institutions will scarcely be wanting and some prac- tical suggestions might be given to secure the realization of the idea. Surely it would not be impossible to find one or several well-informed priests able and willing to undertake such a task. If it could be done there would be no uncertainty about the advantages accruing from such a course. There are difficulties in the way, but let us hope they are not insurmountable and that the combined efforts of the several Departments of this Association may be sufficient to make these suggestions practicable.
With these considerations I will bring my words to a close. I conceive that there is a relation between the seminary and the general work of education, a relation of cooperation on the part of professors, a relation based on the necessity of earnest endeavor to fit our students to enlist among the defenders of solid education, a rela- tion that is of no accidental character but proceeding from the very nature of our work and involving a large degree of responsibility, a relation of which we are con- scious, one that we are not anxious to slight, but rather wish to strengthen and perfect, so that by using the means and opportunities at our disposal, and girding ourselves afresh to pursue with zeal and love the exalted mission which the Great High Priest has committed to us, we
The Eelation of the Seminary 887
shall continue with ever-increasing success to form new champions in the educational struggle. We shall strive with the spirit of consecration and love, in season and out of season, to equip our young levites with all that is demanded to make them competent, energetic workers in the establishment of the Kingdom of Christ upon earth.
F. V. Corcoran, C. M. Kenrick Seminary, St. Louis, Mo.
THE WORK OF THE SISTERS OF THE HOLY
NAMES
This was how it originated: Miss Eulalie Durocher was given the opportunity to see the young girls of her native Province of Quebec growing to womanhood with- out sufficient religious instruction; then grace ripened a plan in her soul whereby she was enabled to come to their rescue. When enterprises are of God they flourish won- derfully. To follow the progress and development of the work undertaken by Miss Durocher back in the early forties of the last century will make this statement evi- dent.
Just one. hundred years ago, October 6, 1911, Eulalie Durocher was bom at St. Antoine, P. Q. She was edu- cated at the Congregation Convents at St. Denis and Montreal. Three of her brothers, by entering the priest- hood, set her a noble example of self-sacrifice ; her eldest sister joined the Congregation of Notre Dame. Eulalie intended to f ollew her sister to the Novitiate but was pre- vented by illness. She resolved none the less to carry out her pious project when her health would permit; mean- while she prayed, and waited, and grew strong. God, however, had other designs on her. Mrs. Durocher 's death occurred shortly after Eulalie 's return from school. Then father and daughter went to live at the parochial residence at Beloeil, where her brother. Rev. Theophile Durocher, was Rector. Here it was that Eulalie had occasion to see the deplorable condition of popular educa- tion; for her activity, embracing as it did all forms of charity, brought her into close contact with every class of society.
In 1835, there were in Canada thirteen convents under the direction of the Sisters of the Congregation of Notre
WOEK OP SiSTEES OF HoLY NaME 889
Dame; the Ursulines had a boarding-school in the City of Quebec, another at Three Eivers. Miss Durocher saw that fifteen schools conld not provide for the intellec- tual needs of the rapidly increasing school population of the Province of Quebec. She realized that something should be done, and at once. But how do it? While she was praying for light and guidance the Oblates of Mary Immaculate came to Canada, at the call of Eight Eev. I. Bourget, Bishop of Montreal. On their arrival in 1841 they were given the parish of St. Hilaire, their first mission-field in America. A year later they opened a col- lege at Longueuil, P. Q.
St. Hilaire being quite near Beloeil, Eev. Father Telmon, 0. M. I., became Eulalie^s spiritual director. Through him Mgr. de Mazenod, founder of the Oblate Fathers, was informed of the state of education in Can- ada and of Miss Durocher 's desire to devote her life to its betterment. The saintly Bishop had founded a teach- ing Order at Marseilles, the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, and on Father Telmon 's representa- tions, he decided to open a convent of the Holy Names at Longueuil where Eulalie could enter. One year, an- other passed, and it was still impossible for Sisters to come from Marseilles for the proposed foundation. The final decision was an indefinite postponement of the project.
In her hour of disappointment Eulalie did not abandon hope. Why could there not be a new educational Order in God 's Church ? To many the idea seemed novel and rash ; yet the Lord showed His chosen servant how it could be done. Through sorrow and suffering, through trials and humiliations. He led her His way, and she followed hum- bly and submissively, as can be read in her life, until the Eight Eev. I. Bourget, Bishop of Montreal, and Mgr. de
890 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Mazenod, Bishop of Marseilles, urged her to begin an Order at Longueuil. At their bidding and that of her spir- itual director, she left Beloeil, accompanied by a holy friend. Miss M. Dufresne, to accomplish her life-mission.
Miss Henriette Cere with her sister Emilie was, at this time, conducting a school near the Longueuil parish church. Eulalie and her friend received a cordial wel- come here and together with Miss Cere, they immediately began their novitiate. Kev. Father Guigues, 0. M. I., was their ecclesiastical superior, Eev. Father Allard, 0. M. I., their novice-master, and Eight Eev. I. Bourget, their devoted father, their faithful and enlightened friend. This explains why the ^* sea-severed'' Orders of the Holy Names never had any connection besides the ties of friendship and the bonds of prayer; why the small pri- vate school of Miss Cere is revered as the foundation house, the first Convent of Mother Mary Eose's Com- munity.
The beginning was made with thirteen boarders and about twice that number of day pupils. Thus it was in penury and trials, which stimulated the wonderful fervor of the three foundresses, that the Congregation of the Holy Names had birth. The religious formation of the novices went hand in hand with their professional train- ing, and Father Allard was a stem task-master because a competent one.
After several months of preparation. Miss Durocher, Miss Cere and Miss Dufresne were admitted to the Ee- ligious Clothing, taking the names of Sister Mary Eose, Sister Mary Magdalen, and Sister Mary Agnes. Two new recruits now joined the Foundresses, Miss Salome Martin, whose home was at St. Philip, P. Q., and Miss Hedwidge Davignon, of St. Mathias, P. Q.; the former was known under the religious name of Mother Theresa of Jesus, the latter as Mother Veronica of the Crucifix. If Mother Mary Eose impressed her Congregation with
Work of Sisters of Holy Name 891
the seal of her tireless devotedness to her chosen life- work, her maternal tenderness for her Sisters and the pupils, her angelic holiness; if Mother Mary Magdalen became pre-eminently the model religious teacher for her Order ; if Mother Mary Agnes was the exponent of morti- fication and renouncement for all generations of the Holy Names, the next two candidates were to be, one the apos- tle, and the other the pedagogical authority, of the Com- munity. God takes the means to fit His instruments for His work. The Church has always trained its teachers. A novitiate is a splendid school of ethics where the will and the heart are moulded to the highest virtue. If these preparations are imperative. Mother Mary Rose knew that something else was also required. To accomplish her design of forming efficient educators, she realized that professional training was necessary. Hence after months of constant drill in the school-room under the cultured Father Allard, the Superiors decided to send Mother Theresa of Jesus and Mother Veronica of the Crucifix to Montreal to complete their normal work.
While in the city, the two novices boarded with the Sisters of Providence, and studied methods, and gained additional experience in the schools of the Christian Brothers, under the immediate direction of an able and gifted instructor. Brother Facile. Mother Veronica afterwards tested the knowledge she acquired there, by practice in the school room; then she prepared a peda- gogical treatise for the use of the Sisters. The services of Professor Hagan, of Ottawa, were also engaged for the formation of the young teachers at Longueuil. Thus was that part of the edifice built, which was not reared by hands.
Mother Mary Rose, in the meantime, was considering the development of her Comanunity. The present resi- dence was much too small. The number of postulants was increasing, as was also the school attendance. The
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parishioners of Longueuil again came to the assistance of the young Community, and provided a larger and more commodious establishment. In this, the second year of existence, the number of resident pupils ran into the sixties, and the day pupils were double that of the preceding year. The three Novices had worked earnestly at their sanctification, had been so generously self- sacrificing in the service of God that His Lordship and the novice-master appointted December 8, 1844, as the date of their religious profession. This became a mem- orable day for the Community : that morning the Bishop gave it episcopal approbation, and the first government was organized, with Mother Mary Eose as Superior. Within the course of the same year, it was incorporated by Act of Parliament.
Success is rarely a gift ; it must generally be purchased at an exceeding cost. The price demanded of Mother Mary Eose was a heavy toll, but God is never bankrupt. Calmly, patiently. Mother faced the financial storms with which she was buffeted. The property which had been given her was demanded back, she gave it ; money for its use was exacted, she paid it; new buildings had to be erected, she had them built; more properly had to be purchased or expansion would become impossible, she bought it; and the means to meet her payments never failed her, although she and her Sisters suffered from lack of the very necessaries of life; they were often obliged to pass a week at a stretch without bread at their meals. The school flourished, nevertheless, and her daughters have always been grateful to the benefactory who secured for them years of peace for the upbuilding of the work, even if he did try it crucially afterwards. The monetary troubles over, calumny was resorted to, but when God is with us, it matters not who is against us. The Community grew and Mother Mary Eose had the happiness of opening branch houses at Beloeil, St. Tim-
Work of Sisters of Holy Name 893
othy, and St. Lin before her premature death, October 6, 1849. She left twenty-three professed Sisters, eleven novices and twelve postulants imbued with her spirit to carry on her work.
Her successor, Mother Veronica of the Crucifix, was a leader in educational endeavor. Her ambition was to broaden and deepen the studies, that the young girls, who were now coming in large numbers to the Longueuil boarding school, might become the valiant women of Holy Writ. Nor was she disappointed. The distinctive edu- cational characteristics of the Sisters of the Holy Names are mainly due to Mother Veronica of the Crucifix.
To Mother Theresa of Jesus, who was elected Superior General in 1854, the Community owes its development. Her gifts of head and heart were extraordinary. We have but to visit Hochelaga Convent to discover what manner of woman she was. In these early days of pen- ury and inexperience she did not hesitate to build an institution that soon became one of the foremost of its kind in America. Mr. Simon Valois, the father of Mrs. Lussier, of Montreal, one of the Longueuil pupils, gen- erously donated the land and erected the chapel, a gem of Grecian architecture. Pupils came from far and near until there were two hundred resident students. These girls are now women well on towards the sunset, they are women who have understood that life has duties and responsibilities as well as pleasures, women who have made the world better by their refinement and their virtue.
But Mother Theresa of Jesus did other things that were wonderful for the times. In 1859, Mgr. Blanchet asked the Bishop of Montreal to send teachers to his distant diocese of Oregon City. The Congregation of the Holy Names had only sixteen years of existence. Mother Theresa of Jesus counted the cost, then appealed to the Community: twelve Sisters immediately volunteered
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their services for the new school in Portland, Ore. It was a trying moment for nature. These pioneers of educa- tion on the Pacific Coast were quitting home, kindred, and native land, which would be henceforth for them a pleas- ant dream, but none the less a dream. And yet, they too, knew well that it is a joy to be able to clasp the hands of loved ones when you wish, and let heart speak to heart. The route to Oregon in those days lay by Panama ; and six weeks was the measure of the journey to Portland, then a mere trading post for miners. There were hard days ahead, days of poverty and ceaseless labor, but the end was attained, thanks to the noble women who under- stood so well how to train the intellect and form the character. From St. Mary's Academy and College, as from Longueuil and Hochelaga, have gone out women who would be a credit to any institution and who are an honor to their country.
^* Conditions are not pleasant in America,'* a Eussian nobleman said to one of St. Mary's Alumnae, **when you are liable to have to sit at table with the daughter of your washerwoman. ' '
^*I am proud," she replied, **to claim as my native land a country where intelligence is king, and education the aristocracy."
She was the wife of the American Minister to Constan- tinople, and true to the spirit of the Eules, this woman like so many others, was educated according to her state in life. **What inspiring pages of domestic life could be written on the pupils who have passed out of the many schools that grew and prospered on the Pacific slope!"
Mother Veronica of the Crucifix, herself came at the Superior General's wish to direct the houses at Port- land, St. Paul, Oregon City, The Dalles, Salem, and Jack- sonville. If these schools *^ command distinction," as Eight Eev. Edw. J. 0 'Dea, recently wrote, it is due, in a great measure to the energetic foundresses. In 1892
WOBK OP SiSTEES OF HoLY NaME 895
Mother Mary Margaret brought the studies up to a high standard; she had St. Mary's chartered as a college and spared no effort to fit her Sisters for the work of higher education.
Key West, Fla., and Oakland, Calif., were a result of Mother Theresa's visit to the West. The many acade- mies and schools in Washington, Oregon, and California are the outcome of her zeal. We are astonished today when we reflect on the magnitude of her plans, but their realization and success convince us that they were inspired by the Holy Ghost. Windsor, Ontario, and Albany, N. Y., also sprang into existence at her word.
With Mother Veronica of the Crucifix to stimulate the young Sisters with her own love of study, and Mother Theresa of Jesus to dare and do all things for Christ's little ones, the Community spread and carried afar its educational ideals. God was surely kind to Mother Mary Rose's daughters. He called the Mother home early, but He ranged strong intellectual women under the banner of the Holy Names who did the work that their Mother had planned.
**Help the clergy in every way you can!" has been a frequent recommendation of the Foundress. Wherever her daughters opened schools in the West, they boarded the Pastor and took care of the sanctuary and the sacristy until the country was developed and the priests' naainte- nance secured.
With that spirit of progress which has alwava marked the Community of the Holy Names, Mother Mary ot the Eosary at great expense built the new boarding school at Outremont, near Montreal. Recently, in the adminis- tration of the present Superior General, Mother Martin of the Ascension, Normal Schools have been opened at Seattle and Spokane in the State of Washington ; and at Valleyfield, P. Q. All grades of schools, as well as schools for all classes form the lif«-work of the Sisters of the
896 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Holy Names. The students of St. Mary's Academy, Win- nipeg, have taken public examinations for many years past, and enjoy the advantage of securing degrees under the system of affiliated colleges which constitute the Uni- versity of Manitoba.
* * To educate young ladies according to their station in life,*' is in the Eules of the Order; and Eome in 1901, gave the final approbation to the Constitutions. Yet, the Sisters twice departed from the prescribed end. They closed their school in Jacksonville, Ore., in 1868, when the black smallpox made a charnel-house of the beautiful town. All the citizens, who could, fled. Hus- bands abandoned their wives; and mothers, their off- spring. But Sister Francis of Assisi and Sister Mary Edward went among the plague-stricken during those six awful weeks of death ; day and night they were at the post of danger while strength remained. At last the vio- lence of the disease spent itself through lack of victims, and the Sisters went north to recuperate. Sister Francis of Assisi 's health never returned. She lingered for two years before answering the Lord's home-call. She had given her life for her neighbor, what could she have done more? Sister Mary Edward still lives to tell the tale of these terrible days among the dying who were decompos- ing before life was extinct.
On another occasion also the Sisters abandoned their books, this time to open one of their schools to the nation's defenders. It was during the Spanish- American War when the hungry regiments reached Tampa, Fla., without provisions. The young ladies of Holy Names Convent, Tampa, aided their teachers to brew tea and make coifee, etc., for the famishing men. The Convent of Mary Immaculate, Key West, was turned into a hospital, and handed over to the United States authorities who trained the Sisters in what short time they had to care for the wounded. During a scourge of yellow fever on
WOBK OF SiSTEES OF HOLY NaME 897
the Island, the Sisters had once before sent their pupils home, and devoted themselves to the pest-stricken. There was happiness in soothing the last hour of the dying, or in helping nature in her efforts back to health.
To be the least among the helpers of Holy Church is a great joy; to do work that will reflect her spirit, make known her greatness, and spread her light is almost an apostolic privilege. To have over 1,300 teachers banded under one General Superior — for thank God, during the march of the years, there has never been a branch lopped from the tree — is surely the fulfillment of the prayers of the humble yet virile woman, who with a prophet ^s eye and a prophet's ardor saw what could be done for educa- tion and how to do it.
Today there are nine Provinces of the Order, whose respective Provincials lighten the burden of the General Superior and her five Councillors. Silently, slowly, God raised up the citadel. With the Holy Names for watch- word, we pray that we may long be able to speak of victo- ries in the hard fought field of modem educational en- deavor. S. M. G.
Montreal, Canada.
READING IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS AND COL- LEGES
The main purpose of this paper is to discuss how we may promote the right kind of reading in our high schools, academies and colleges. Along with the belief that reading constitutes an essential part of education runs the conviction in the minds of many if not most edu- cators that our young people read neither wisely nor well. They do not read the right things, or they read them without appreciation, and they read the wrong things. Assuming that we are agreed on the need of reading not only as part of a course in English literature but also as a very essential part of an education that would be liberal and humane, our problem becomes mainly one of ways and means to reach an end. That end indeed should not be forgotten. The aim of a study of literature is not the mere acquaintance with the facts, titles, names, dates of the meanings and genealogies of words, but understanding and appreciation of the life of literature ; it is the assimilation, and not the accumulation, of the knowledge to be derived therefrom. The student mind is a living organism, not an apartment house. It must grow and develop by an inner force ; it has not to be furnished or decorated from without. To teach the young mind to reflect, to convert to its own uses what it knows, to turn knowledge into power, is the teacher's function whereby he will reduce the number of average men and women in the world. For the average man or woman is the man or woman who does not think. We shall consider reading, then, as a means to this larger end in the study of litera- ture.
Here is the case as we meet it concretely in the class room. The average age of a high school freshman is 15,
Eeading in Secondaby Schools and Colleges 899
of a college freshman, 18, while the age of an academy freshman, we presmne discreetly, is somewhere between the two. In the grades, work in English is largely limited to the study of grammar, so that the high school fresh- man has done little if any formal reading in English.' This is not to say he has done no reading. Even if the home does not supply him with books, in this day of read- ily accessible public libraries he has probably come into close contact with books and done some if not consid- erable reading. In the cities the juvenile section of the library is, I believe, well patronised. So that at 14 many a boy and girl has formed a taste for reading, at least for a certain kind of reading. But that matter Is negli- gible for the present. The important thing, from the teacher's standpoint, is that here there is ready for his use a tool, an instrument for him to play upon, a force and power which he has but to direct. The case is the same for the student who comes to college with a formed taste in reading. The professor's task is comparatively light. He has but to mould an existing medium, he has not to create his materials.
But, on the other hand, there is the high school fresh- man, and, more incredible, the college freshman or high school graduate, who has not acquired a taste for reading. Here the teacher or professor must start from the ground up. First of all, he must himself be a man of wide and deep reading, with a true relish for literature and a true sym- pathy for human nature, not as an abstraction but as personified in the dull, indolent, or unwilling pupil before him. If the teacher himself is fully convinced of the need and the advantages of reading, if he is on fire with the love of literature, with an enthusiasm in method intel- ligently controlled, he has made the first long step in the direction of creating the interest lacking in his pupil. For we may as well face the fact, painful as it is : too seldom are we teachers thus equipped in mind or temper, and in
900 The Catholic Educational Eeview
some measure the absence of right reading in onr schools and the presence of wrong reading is due to the teacher who is only half convinced in the cause, only half equipped for the the work, and consequently but a blind — or at least one-eyed — leader of the blind, a cistern without water. The low stream points to a low source. A teacher who is not in love with literature and in love with life, the only key to letters, a teacher uninformed, about whom lingers some superstition of the dangerousness of literature, a teacher who stoops — mayhap from compound interest or test-tubes — to literature is the first dilBficulty in the prob- lem of reading in secondary schools and colleges. Until in the teacher ^s mind the library takes at least equal foot- ing with the laboratory in vain will any effort be to give reading the place it ought to have in the school cur- riculum.
Supposing, however, the teacher rightly equipped and zealous in this particular work, confronted with a pupil or class, deficient in this matter of reading, whether in high school, academy or college, with what lights on method can we furnish his good intention? Such a teacher, we would again remark, has already made a long stride in the right direction simply by being what he is ; for not machinery, devices, or methods so essentially are needed as the enkindling spirit, the love of literature. Here as elsewhere, cor ad cor loquitur. So much being premised, the teacher will succeed in his purpose in pro- portion as he understands his pupil or his class, in pro- portion to his influence over the individual or the group, and in proportion to the aptness of the selection of books which he makes for the one or the many. These three elements count for much at the very start. It all comes down to suiting the nourishment to the organism, but to do this, imderstanding of the condition of the organism, power of personality to make one's prescription effective and, obviously, as we have previously intimated, know]-
Eeading in Secondaby Schools and Colleges 901
edge of the range of remedies, i. e., knowledge of the resources of literature itself, are necessary on the teacher's part.
The mind grasps only what it is prepared to receive — *Hhe eye sees only what it brings with it the power of seeing.'' Keeping that as a cardinal principle, let the teacher be concerned to reach the nerve or cord which a particular book or selection may be expected to touch. For example, the instinct of self-preservation is strong in the boy. Consequently his mind is in readiness to assimilate the literature of war and adventure. Dray- ton's **Agincourt," and Tennyson's ** Revenge" and * ^ Charge of the Light Brigade, ' ' and the ballads of Henry Newbolt will hold and thrill many a boy on whom **The Psalm of Life" is lost, not because they are better poetry, that is not the question, but because he has the means of understanding them better. Similarly, most narrative poetry, such as the '^Rime of the Ancient Mariner" will appeal. The same is true of prose reading. I have known a class of boys in high school work to follow breathlessly an hour's reading of the old chronicle account of the Battle of Hastings. The teacher at first must take what he can get in the way of preparedness for reading on the pupil's part, and work on that. I know of one splendid and desperate professor who was reduced, in the beginning, to read a dime novel to his class, a class that he subsequently brought on to the love of Ruskin. Applications will vary greatly, but the prin- ciple remains that the selection is to be governed by the pupil's preparedness to receive it.
When the pupil is unready, however, his disposition can be worked upon; curiosity can be aroused, interest stimulated. The ways of doing this are simple but there is sometimes need of delicacy. Praise of a book often is fatal to its appreciation. It is like the laudatory intro- duction given a speaker, often it defeats its purpose. If
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you can touch some vital nerve in the student you give the book a better chance. For example, you desire him to read Newman's Callista. '* Here/ 'you say, **is the first of the psychological novels, and yet a book that has never been allowed the importance it really has. Now, you will meet discussion of novels, psychological and other, everywhere. Not one man in fifty will know about this book. Here is your chance to be one man in fifty." There you give the student a motive, not the highest motive possible, but you touch a vital spot, his desire for conspicuous excellence, and you have said no praise derogatory to the book. He takes it from you as a matter of course that the book is worth reading. Charles War- ren Stoddard is an author — a Catholic author, too — ^well worthy of the most liberal reading in the class room and out. And he may be approached in a number of ways, apart from the primal way of the student's preparedness for his writings. Does the Catholic want to have one superb stylist among Catholic writers in America to refer to in this or that discussion of the merits of our contribu- tion to literature; does he wish to have for citation and for his own satisfaction an instance of perfect conver- sion; is he anxious to see the blend of East and West influences in a peculiarly susceptible temperament, let him steep himself in Charles Warren Stoddard. Other motives, varying with the reader, the teacher, and the author to be approached, may be discovered to place a book in the right light for the student, to create an inter- est where there was none, or to rouse a dormant curiosity. In all this work of immediate influence, the teacher will succeed best where he best persuades the particular pupil that this book is just the thing for him. In such attention, there is a subtle compliment which the ordinary student will appreciate, and on the teacher's side there is no reason why such a compliment may not be sincere. Outside the formal reading of the class room and apart
Eeadifg in Secondaey Schools and Colleges 903
from pure pedagogy there are ways to stimulate interest in reading. At all times we read for delight which is the final motive of art. Here, pleasure and profit are one. There is reading for information, but that is rather study, and there is a scientific reading, the close, intensive con- sideration which is given a text in the class room, and this, too, is scientific study, whether of philology, of logic, the laws of thought relation, or of literary structure. But reading as we use it here is reading for life and enjoy- ment, for appreciation and the resultant assimilation of knowledge which means general intellectual development. Such reading is its own reward, and college students, at least, can be got to understand that this is so. They like to be told that they are wealthy mentally, or may become so, win the knowledge that alone is power, simply by addressing themselves to the mastering of a few great books. And the satisfaction that comes while this work is being pursued, in returns got along the way, justifies their faith for the ultimate result. For younger students a motive less high may be invoked, for example, honors, or exemptions.
Give a medal for reading as we do for writing and bookkeeping; or allow exemption from this or that class duty, class attendance, or examination, provided a certain achievement is made in right reading. This method is mentioned, though it presents academic difficulties, and there is no intention here of according it full approval. This plan, however, might be followed. In high school work, offer an alternative in the course of the history of literature; either a course of study in a reputable text- book with necessary selected readings, or a course in the history of literature wholly by reading, groups of authors and works being selected and set by the teacher. Pro- vided such reading were done under the proper direction there is no doubt which would be the better course in the history of literature inasmuch as it is infinitely better to
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know literature and authors in their works, than to know about authors and know their writings scarcely at all. In advanced college work the plan is actually followed where there is a course, for instance, in Shakespeare, but what more profitable work in English could a college freshman do than that involved in a detailed and careful reading, let us say, of Newman's Idea of a University, Assimilating the knowledge therein contained, — and that would be a liberal education — he would arrive as well at a juster apprecia- tion of style and do more for the acquiring and improving a style of his own, since style is really a work of thought — * thinking out into language, *' Newman calls it — than by any amount of formal and explicit drilling on those ele- ments standing unrelated to living literature and alone.
A quickening method that may be applied outside the class room and in connection with it is the reading circle, or society for reading alone. In union there is strength. The spirit of reading is contagious, books circulate, read- ers make readers. The teacher has achieved a great result when he creates a reader who will create other readers. Gather these forces together, give them an organization and a purpose, allow the society special privileges, and hold it to strict compliance with its own regulations, make membership in it every way desirable and advantageous. In this way you will put reading on a footing of honor which at present it lacks in the minds of most students.
An organization of this kind exists at the University of Notre Dame, and I have been asked by the committee of this association to outline the methods of the society. **The Apostle of Eeligious Beading'' had its origin in the requests for books made by students to one of the prefects in Brownson Hall. The prefect in question at first loaned his own books, few in number and sober in character. These were faithfully read and returned with requests for others. Then there arose in the prefect's
Eeading in Secondaby Schools and Colleges 905
mind a project of founding a circulating library of good solid reading. This library should be supported by nomi- nal fees paid by faithful readers and by contributions from without. In two years and a half upwards of two hundred books have been secured in this way. These books are practically all by Catholic authors, American and English, and are the very best of their kind. With the development of the work, the idea of religious reading has been gradually modified into good reading, amount- ing to nearly the same thing substantially while allowing a wider range in the selection of books. Thus it has come about that the library is made up largely of fiction, whole- some Catholic fiction, and when one reflects on the kind of books and magazines this Catholic fiction has supplanted for many of the library's present patrons, one sees that, after all, it has not fallen short of its initial religious ideal. Located in Brownson Hall, the library is none the less open to the students of every hall of the University. In each of the halls there is a promoter who each week goes around with a basket or suit case of books offering a selection and delivering the goods, literally, at the student's very door. In this way many are supplied who would be reluctant to hunt up books for themselves. This means reaches those who would not read otherwise, and it is a convenience as a timesaver for the eager student. Here is a typical complete card of a college freshman representing a year's reading:
Life after Death (Vaughan).
Dangers of the Day (Vaughan).
Means and Ends of Education (Spalding).
The Coin of Sacrifice (Eeid).
A Royal Son and Mother (von Hiigel).
A Sin and Its Atonement.
A Troubled Heart (Stoddard).
A Day in the Cloister (Camm).
Carmela (Reid).
906 The Catholic Educational Review
Vera's Charge (Reid).
The Lepers of Molokai (Stoddard).
Poems (Tabb).
A typical list of a preparatory, or high school student, shows the following :
A Sin and Its Atonement.
Thoughts for All Times (Vaughan).
Martyrs of the Coliseum (O'Reilly).
Sins of Society (Vaughan).
The Divine Story (Holland).
Fabiola (Wiseman).
Holy Mass ( 0 'Kennedy) .
When one remembers that the library counts about two hundred steady readers one surely must say it has been successful. This success is due first to the untiring zeal of its founder and chief promoter. Brother Alphon- sus, C. S. C, to its accessibility, to the personal propa- ganda, as it might be called, which is its distinctive note, and finally to the range and excellence of its books.
This suggests a final question, — what to read. For school room work the answer is simple, the classics, of course, and, let me add, the classics in whole, not in part. Selections, *' elegant extracts'' — anathema on the name and the thing. These are the cream, the sweetmeats of literature, and one can no more acquire a reliable taste in literature from dining off them than he could hope for good health on a diet of bon-bons and ice cream cones. The masters are not always on the heights, they are not at their best on every page, there are slumps in great books. Why spare the young reader the stretch of desert that alone gives the oasis its full sweetness? Why take from him his best background for appreciating the author's highest greatness? Rather, let him wrestle with his author, where need be, and he will the more genuinely and gratefully rest in his great passages. And he will know life the better. I would make an exception for
Eeading in Secondary Schools and Colleges 907
poetry in favor of a book like Palgrave's Golden Treas- ury, or Mrs. MeynelPs Flower of the Mind, or The Ox- ford Book of English Verse. Poetry is poetry or nothing. And in poetry, moreover, individual poems are complete in themselves, and are consequently not ** extracts'' at all. In the three anthologies cited may be found all the gold of English song. Gradations of readings have been made by competent hands and editions offered for school use, so that this matter need not be here touched upon.
Class work will do much if it makes a reader of the student when outside the classroom, and it will do little if it fail of this. To get our young people to sit down contentedly with the world's great books is to counteract some of the intellectual and social faults of our American people. When fashions of mind, no less than of dress, of books and even of physique, change almost hourly, we are cursed with the vulgar ambition to be up to date. We are impatient of process, we want immediate results, we are irreverent of the past, whether of yesterday or of Thebes. We hurry through things, we make short cuts. One enterprising firm of publishers exhibits this tendency in the strongest light by offering an abridged edition of the great masterpieces of literature, thus furnishing an express subway course through the literature of the world. Our own books notoriously reflect this tendency. They are, as some one happily termed them, the moving pictures of literature. These thousands of dollar and a half or dollar and a quarter volumes that issue daily from our publishing houses stand to the works of Dickens, Thackeray, Sienkiewicz, as the nickleodeon to the drama of Elizabethan England. They present only the most superficial view of life, highly colored often by a flam- boyant personality. From the masters we get life as it is, while, as Professor Babbitt says, ^*much of modem literature merely encourages to sentimental and romantic revery rather than to a resolute and manly grappling
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with the plain facts of existence/^ There is a quality* of sobriety about the great books and a discipline that serves as a stimulus to the will and the moral side of man. Between the mind and character of the man who has read these books and the mind and character of the man who has fed on the Bob Chambers' of literature there is the difference there is between a steel lance and a roll of putty. There is a bracing atmosphere in the classics, an air in which the weak grow lusty and the strong are made more mighty. The restlessness, the softness, the irrev- erence; the whimsicalness of our time will meet one strong corrective in the intellectual discipline to be derived from the habit of reading the world's best books. To form that habit in our own young people, to give them the power to be wise and happy at the same time, is a worthy work for any Catholic teacher.
Charles L. 0'Donn:ell, 0. S. C. Notre Dame University.
A TRIPARTITE AID TO RELIGIOUS EDUCATION
PART I
Catholic education has been primarily established for the salvation of souls through the medium of daily- religious and moral instruction. Does the work of the religious educator in this direction end with the little morning talk? By no means. God is first, last, and always ; not in one thing only, but in all things. To teach rightly, is to deal with the human heart, to plant therein a love of what is true, good, and beautiful; and religion is but one of the means to attain this end. * * What ever is, is good.*' Truth, the ultimatum of all knowledge, is God's. All truth, then, emanating from Him should return to Him as the water flowing from the fountain returns thereto. It is an axiom of common sense that all the means should harmonize and be subordinate to the end. So, in the teaching of profane branches, many opportunities arise to remind us of the end in view and furnish means for its attainment, which is to have our pupils seek God and His Kingdom through the world in which they live. He is everywhere; all things are but finite limitations of His infinite bounty ; Nature is but the mirror of His perfections.
We teach to impart, holding with firm conviction that knowledge is good and worthy of our best endeavors. While, to know, is good ; to be, is better. The knowledge without the proper being is a dangerous weapon in the hands of a human creature ; so, while we inculcate knowl- edge, we endeavor to perfect our pupils in their being, and it must stand to reason that the one should aid the other. The Wise Man says: *^With all thy getting, get understanding, ' ' and what is understanding, if not a cor- rect notion of right, of truth, of justice? Justice is the
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King of the Cardinal Virtues, the sum total of the wisdom of the ancient Philosophers. We do not highly value a Sunday religion ; in the same manner, the courses of study in our schools would be barren of proper results if relig- ion did not permeate and vivify all.
Of the branches taught in our schools, which will be helpful in attaining the end of religious education, there are three which preeminently partake of religion, while apparently seeming apart therefrom — science, literature, and history. Yet, we need not make these lessons relig- ious in the strict sense of the word ; a tactful teacher can often inject religion without seeming to do so. This is not only useful, but even necessary to be true to our vocation. In the world at large, most men have an aim, be it money, position, or fame. All desire success in their chosen sphere; no means are left untried to assure it, be they ever so insignificant. Often, their endeavors are worthy of a better cause. How imperative, then, is it for us to keep in view our lifework, which is God's! During His life on earth, He never lost sight of the end; and for its ultimate success. He laid down His life. To us, He has imparted the grace to continue His work; not only that, but He has set us the example : * * He taught as one having power.'' Well might the Scripture add to us: **Go, and do thou in like manner!"
In the teaching of science, many opportunities are afforded to show its correlation to religion. Science here is not to be taken in its broadest sense, but is restricted to the natural sciences. The metaphysical, as treated by Catholics, are religious directly and indirectly ; otherwise, we would have an incongruity in the form of a soulless intellect, or treat of principles and laws while ignoring the Author.
In our day, men with their highly formed intellects, minus the coordinated training of the heart, in their pride and mad rush for notoriety, are gradually rejecting the
A Teipartite Aid to Eeligious Education 911
Supernatural, and losing faith in a personal God. Our Catholic youth need no confirmation for the existence of God or His revealed Religion ; such has been implanted in their souls by Baptism, strengthened by Confirmation, nurtured by a fond, pious mother, and carefully guarded by a selfless, devoted teacher. Happy, blessed the child with these safeguards ! No wonder so much is expected of him from the fountain head of all his goodness — God's Holy Church!
Thank God for the Faith! But let it not be a light hidden under a bushel. Too timid we have been. The days of the Catacombs have long since passed. ^*So let thy light shine ' ' must be the motto of the Church and her valiant sons if the unbelief of the present is to be checked. We need make no stir; simply let the light shine. Light makes no noise; it peeps through crevices unobtrusively; it illumines in the open unimpedibly. Numerically we are strong, in proportion should our influence be in the moral order. ' ' Then conquer we must, for our cause is so just.'' But conquer we will not, unless we make use of the proper means, just the very ones which the enemies of religion use to bring it into dis- credit— vigilance, activity, and determination.
The age in which we live fastens itself on to the latest fad, good or bad. It lives or dies according to the numDer and zeal of its propagators. Should we rest on our oars ? Should ours in later life be dashed headlong in the whirl- pool of modem vagaries to their own destruction and the discredit of the Religion which fain would throw the saving rope of grace ? Then we must be up and doing : against vigilance in the wrong, we must be vigilant in the right ; activity against activity ; determination against determination. Our vocation demands it of us, the Church looks to us for it, and God, Himself, expects it of us. True, it is, that Christian virtue has ever been symbolized by the modest violet; but, when it is threat-
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ened by being ruthlessly trampled upon, self-preservation demands that it shall live, and if needs be by open fight with moral arms. Christian Faith loves the quiet of seclusion ; but when quiescence amounts to pusillanimity, virtue ceases to be, and borders on vice. We must, then, form our pupils to be soldiers in the moral order, and science is one of the means to the end.
In the world of science there is a class of men who use satire and ridicule with all their poignant force to reflect discredit and disbelief in religion. False science would dethrone religion; real science must be used to keep it enthroned. When our Catholic youth mix with the world, and possibly hear their religion made little of, and them- selves termed * Spriest-ridden,'' will they, with the divine glow of the real manhood it is our blesses privilege to try to instill, stand up and put the scoffer to shame and con- fusion by the very means he used to confuse? Or, must our youths blush, and by a silence affirm, or at least, give the impression that they know not what they believe? Let us not trust to ingenuity, or rely on the occasion making the man, but forestall by a thorough drill in maintaining God through the world which He has created. It is true that the student acquires a knowledge of the origin of the world in cosmology; but how few, compara- tively speaking, ever reach that stage in the college cur- riculum ! We are dealing with the many, not the privi- leged few, and we must try as far as practicable to make up for them the loss which we regret it is theirs to sustain in not benefiting by the advantages of higher Catholic education.
We must teach wherein the so-called man of science is wrong in his conception, or rather nonconception, of God and revealed Religion. The man of science will not be- lieve religion because he does not understand it. **The Church asks too much of reasonable men. ' ' The simplest school boy can readily see, if pointed out, the very incon-
A Tkipaetite Aid to Religious Education 913
sistency of the doubter. Wliat of Nature? All tlie great scientists were, and are, as little children sitting at her feet, drinking in unquestionably the little she vouchsafes to give them. They never doubt ; they dare not question her authority ; they are all eagerness to learn more, never able to learn all. Before Nature, the scientists bends his knee and says his ^^ Credo'' with as much reverence and more awe than we do when we bow before the God of Nature. In Nature, the scientist believes that which he does not understand, and neither sees. He believes that the grass grows. Can he see, can he understand the process underlying the growth; the intussusception of moisture by the roots whereby the little blade is endowed with organic life? He believes in electricity because he sees its effects. Can he tell what the little fluid is which runs our cars, lights our houses and streets, and even cooks our food? Nature balks him at every turn.
There are some not of our Faith, who in the pursuit of science realized their own littleness, notably, the late Lord Kelvin, who said: ** Scientific thought is compelled to accept the idea of creative Power.'' Further he stated, in speaking of his achievements during his fifty-five years of research: *^As regards electrical and magnetic force, the relation between ether and ponderable matter, I know as much now, as I did fifty-five years ago." The same eminent physicist more than once was heard to say that the closer he came in contact with the secrets of Nature, the nearer he approached to Nature's God; a thought which we cannot too deeply impress on the growing, in- quiring mind of youth.
Despite the proofs of God's existence, we now and again hear the foolish statement that this world is a fortuitous concurrence of atoms. Its absurdity is nicely shown by a story which runs to the effect that a man once unknowingly found himself at his own home in the midst of a company of pronounced atheists. While listening to
914 The Catholic Educational Beview
their blasphemous tirade, the clock struck. ** Gentle- men, * ' he said, ' * this is a wonderful age. You heard that clock strike. Its contrivance is phenomenal; it came together without human agency; every cog and wheel is in its proper place ; it need never be wound. ' ' The com- pany laughed; but when they saw his apparent earnest- ness, they began to doubt his sanity. As he persisted, a heated argument followed. By adroit questioning on his part, he led them to affirm that the clock was regulated by the sun-dial, which in turn was dependent on the sun. * ^ Gentlemen, ' ' he concluded, * ^ I can no more believe that the sun which is the determiner of time and the center of the Universe came into existence of itself, and of itself, keeps in motion the clock-work of the stars and planets than you can believe the same of that simpler, little clock. ' ' It is needless to state that silence and confusion reigned supreme among the group of scoffers.
Furthermore, in our dealing with elementary science in the class room, we should touch on the position which the Church has ever held in regard to scientific progress. That she is inimically inclined thereto, is as old a calumny as the so-called Eef ormation ; and has as often been suc- cessfully refuted as it has been falsely uttered. Still, it requires but an opportune occasion to bring it forth from the depths of ignorance and malice. Why, if Halley's comet were to reappear tomorrow, the supposed Bull of excommunication would be raked up from nowhere, and we would be accused of once having hurled it at the unoffensive, disappointing little trail of light! The Church has ever been foremost in scientific research, and her ablest minds have been, on that account, the greatest benefactors to the human race. The strongest point to attest this, is the rebirth of the science of anatomy under the patronage of the Popes, after it had lain dormant for six centuries by reason of the barbaric wars of Europe. Here, too, a Bull of condemnation was given out by Boni-
A Tbipaetite Aid to Religious Education 915
face Vm, which, when read properly, will turn out to be in reality but a prohibition against the pagan custom of cremation. But the main point on which the accusation rests, is the Galileo case. That the famous scientist was condemned, no one denies; that he was condemned for being scientific, or that he was subjected to torture, is but a fabrication. Galileo brought the trouble on himself by reason of his own obstinacy in holding as a fact that which was only a theory; and today, the scientists who would pity him and scoff at the benightedness of the Church, admit that his theories were wrong. At most, he was bidden to keep silence until he could support his reasoning by proofs. He was silenced by the Roman Tribimal which is not the Church. A writer in the * ' Edin- burg Review,'* who, on account of his not being of our Faith, thereby gives more weight to his words in this instance, says of the case in question: **The myths created by ignorance or fraud, in treating of Galileo's condemnation, have been dispelled. The dungeon, the rack, and the horrors of solitary confinement has dis- appeared from authentic history." In fine, he was con- demned for being unscientific; for encroaching on the Bible to support his theory, which like the Constitution, to the country, is sacred to the Church, and neither admits of private interpretation; his condemnation consisted in being reprimanded; his confinement was of twenty-two days' duration in one of the rooms of a palace, where he had the freedom of the place and the intercourse of his friends at his own pleasure.
More far reaching than preparing our pupils to enter the field of controversy, which is only a possible contin- gency, is the benefit accruing to themselves from the study of the natural sciences. As they grow older, and the so-called American birthright prerogative of freedom possibly asserts itself in the shape of independence of thought, which might incline them to regard the myste-
916 The Catholic Educational Eeview
ries of Eeligion in a critical light, the knowledge of science should come to their aid and teach them the utter futility of searching into the secrets of the Almighty.
Religious dogma should be no stumbling block to the Catholic educated youth. He has learned that science in the natural order is dogmatic, unrelentingly so. Why not re- ligion, even more so ? God rules over both. The youth sees that dogma permeats chemistry. If he disregards the most minute of rules in compounding or in analyzing, will he obtain a resultant? The Law of Definite Proportion is fixed, irrefutable; and, incidently, useful to show by its simple words the sublime truth which Edison calls, *Hhe presence of an All-pervading mind'^ as an evasion for his recent unscientific utterance that he no longer be- lieved in a Personal God or a future life. Mathematics are based on axioms, which no sane man denies because he cannot demonstrate. The boy or girl readily sees this in the beginning of geometry. They likewise know that heat, light, and sound are but hypothetical as far as human knowledge extends towards their nature. They should thus understand that if, in the natural order, things are incomprehensible, that it is more reasonable that the supernatural, which transcends the natural, should be unintelligible to mortal man who cannot rise above his nature any more than water can go beyond its level unaided.
Finally, science is most useful to us in accomplishing the end of our work by reason of its Catholicity. Depend- ing, as we are obliged to, for the most part, on text-books from an indifferent, if not a hostile, source, we never find the name of God mentioned nor the religion of some of the most eminent names connected with scientific achievements. As we do not expect it, we are not disap- pointed at not finding it; still, the omission should be supplied by us, simply to attain the end in view. In all departments of science are to be found Catholic names ;
A Teipaetite Aid to Eeligious Education 917
names, that shed their luster, not only on scientific lore ; but the Religion which was to them a source of inspira- tion.
The very beginning of scientific knowledge lies in ex- periments. Albertus Magnus, a Dominican saint, was the first to point out the wisdom of a direct appeal to Nature to learn her secrets. Francis Bacon, a Franciscan, is called the '* Father of Experimental Physics.'' To Coper- nis, a priest, is attributed the discovery of the solar system which bears his name. De Vico, a Jesuit, first discovered the existence of comets; another Jesuit, Sec- chi, originated the investigation of the solar spectrum. The ** Father of Modern Chemistry," is a Catholic, Anthony Lavosier. The founder of the modern science of bacteriology is the immortal Pasteur. The most re- nowned mathematician is the devout Pascal. Every day we hear the terms : volt, galvanic, ampere ; and each cor- responds to a devout Catholic, the last named found sol- ace and pleasure in teaching the simple truths of the Catechism to the young. Roentgen and Marconi are but recent benefactors to humanity; and, at the same time, belong to the Church.
These are but a few of the many illustrative names to be used to impress our youth that their Religion claims learned men as well as those who are holy ; that sanctity, far from being a hindrance to learning, is a help thereto, inasmuch as virtue clears the mind and prepares the way for the inception of truth.
With the school library usefully adorned with a set of the Catholic Encyclopedia, biographic sketches of such men can be required as an exercise in composition, and a more lasting impression will be made. Such an impres- sion is vital to our interests. Why lay so much stress on Catholic names 1 Does it not savor much like the boasting we hear every time we have a Catholic elected to public office, as if the Church sought such, or could be benefited
918 The Catholic Educational Eeview
thereby. But, here, the case is different. We have an end in view; we hope to inspire pride of Faith; from pride will spring admiration; from admiration, love; from love, practice; and, in practice, the fondest hopes of the zealous teacher are realized, and science will not have been taught in vain.*
Brothee Julian, C. F. X. Louisville, Ky.
♦Literature and History will he considered in separate numbers of the Review.
HON. WILLIAM CALLYHAN EOBINSON, LL. D.
On Monday, November 6tli, William Callyhan Eobin- son, Dean of the Law School of the Catholic University of America, passed to his reward. He died as he lived, among his books. Those who knew him best say that his departure from this life was as he would have wished.
Bom in Norwich, Conn., July 26, 1834, his early edu- cation was received in private schools and at Wesleyan Academy. In 1854 he was graduated from Dartmouth College with the degree of A. B. His Alma Mater con- ferred on him the degree of LL. D. in 1879, and in 1881 Yale made him Master of Arts.
Eleven years after graduating from Dartmouth he practiced law in New Haven. He was a lecturer at the Yale Law School from 1869 to 1872, and Professor of Common Law in the same institution from 1872 to 1896.
As Judge of the New Haven City Court he served from 1869 to 1871, and thereafter was Judge of Connecticut Court of Common Pleas till 1895, when he organized the Law School at the Catholic University of America. For sixteen years he labored earnestly as Dean of the Cath- olic University Law School, delivering his last lecture on Friday, November 3d.
His most celebrated works are *^Life of Ebenezer Beriah Kelly,'' *^ Notes on Elementary Law,'' ** Elemen- tary Law," ^^Clavis Eerum," ^^Law of Patents" in three Volumes, ^ ^ Forensic Oratory, ' ' and * * Elements of Amer- ican Jurisprudence. ' ' He contributed to legal periodicals from 1867 to 1910 and was Editor of the Mirror of Justice in 1903. He was considered an authority on Patent Law and sent one of his pupils to Japan to revise the patent laws of that country for which he was highly honored by the Japanese Government.
920 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Our late Dean was not born within the fold of the Catholic Church. He was educated for and became an Episcopalian Minister. As a Minister he found himself still searching for the truth and his legal bent of mind with its capacity to weigh evidence brought him into Mother Church. Then and throughout the remainder of his life his unyielding loyalty to truth as it was reflected in the mirror of his own soul, seemed to many to be his most prominent attribute. Conviction, begotten of rea- son, developed in later years into sublime faith, and his satisfied belief, that the quest of younger days had ended happily, gave him an equipoise that but few attain. Once certain that he had acquired a knowledge of Divine Truth, the unfolding of the Common Law was easily grapsed by his mind and he became a Master of it early in his legal career. As explanatory of the fact he probably would use at least as positive language as another who has said : ^^The law is the outcome and the result in all the great features that give character to it, of the principles of natural right and justice wrought by sound reasoning and long and patient experience into salutary adaptation to civil conduct and human interests. In the growth of the structure that has thus arisen Christianity has been a predominant influence. Whatever cavil may be raised about the religion we profess, its history remains, and the influence of its morality is undisputed. It has been truly declared to be a part of the Common Law; and he has studied to small purpose who has not learned how large a part that is. If the world can do without Christianity's teaching, the world's law cannot dispense with the results of it/'*
The Late Dean had the teaching instinct. It was love of that profession that induced him to co-operate in founding the Yale Law School. Tempting offers to return
♦Edward John Phelps, "Orations and Essays, The Relation of Law to Justice," p. 105, New York, 1901.
Hon. William Callyhan Eobinson, LL. D. 921
to private practice came frequently but remained unac- cepted. How well he taught at Yale was attested at the Commencement Exercises in June, 1909, when a tablet to his memory was unveiled at that institution, President William H. Taft being present.
His acceptance of the call to the Catholic University in 1895 was in keeping with a sacrificial trait not too com- mon even among teachers. At the age of sixty-one, when most men fortunately circumstanced are not assuming unnecessary burdens, he undertook the task of founding another School of Law. In doiQg so he believed that he had a mission to perform. Through all the earlier years of struggle he was striving to raise the Law School to the high level of the other departments of the Catholic Uni- versity of America. Just as bright days dawned and the School of Law was being filled by eager students Judge Eobinson was summoned by The Judge of Judges.
How well our late Dean's mission was performed at this University another time and other men will deter- mine. In the iaterval most will agree that the mental attitude, wherein daily duties are a mission, must raise the value of any teacher's work from the plain of time- serving to the height of a labor of love. Without this latter no teacher can be great.
May his soul rest in peace.
Thomas C. Cakrigan.
A HASTY INFERENCE
The following letter appeared in the Catholic Standard and Times, under date of October 6 :
^^The Catholic Educational Review for September has an authoritative article on the Sisters of the Holy Cross by ^S. M. A./ one of their own sisters, which settles the dispute as to which was the first college to graduate Cath- olic women. It states on page 639 * since the opening of Collegiate Hall at St. Mary's (Notre Dame, Indiana) in 1904, eighty young women have taken their degrees. ' In 1903 St. Elizabeth's College, Convent Station, N. J., con- ferred the degree of B. A. on a class after four years of college work. The Bishop of Newark was right in addressing them as ^the first fruits of the higher educa- tion of women in this country.' Monsignor Flynn, the historian, was right in *The Catholic Church in New Jersey' when he stated that the College of St. Elizabeth was ' the first institution of the kind in this country, ' for one of the Sisters of the Holy Cross, in the article quoted above, confirms their claims. The trouble in this little controversy was we did not agree as to the definition of the words * college' and * degree.' Both of these terms are too often misused in this country. A 'college' should have a charter empowering it to confer degrees after four years of sucessful collegiate work. 'Collegiate work' in a Catholic college means a classical course of four years. 'Degree': after four years' successful study of what are called the Liberal Arts the student is rewarded with the title of B. A. (Bachelor of Arts). And so, Mr. Editor, I humbly apologise to the Sisters of the Holy Cross at St. Mary's, Notre Dame, for being misled into foisting on them an honor which one of their own members refutes, and to the Sisters of Charity of St. Elizabeth's
A Hasty Infebencb 923
College forgiveness is asked for attempting to take from them the glory which is theirs of being the first to confer on Catholic women in these United States the degree of B. A. after four years of regular college work.
Sincerely yours,
S. H. Hoegan/'
We print the following reply from S. M. A. : An article on the Sisters of Holy Cross, which appeared in this Review for September, has been cited in various newspapers as proof conclusive that St. Mary's, Notre Dame, conferred degrees for the first time in 1904. The writer of the article in question knew nothing of the controversy then waging on the terms ** college'' and *' degree," nor of the rival claims set up by the partisans of the two well-known schools devoted to the higher edu- cation of young women. It is unlikely that either the institutions or their faculties entered into the discussion, as their time and efforts are given to weightier matters. Hence it is not surprising that the writer has seen today for the first time a newspaper clipping in which she is quoted as an authority in settling a dispute of which she has never heard.
Since attention is called to her statement on page 639, of the Catholic Educational Review, relative to the opening of the new Collegiate Hall at the Motherhouse, it is only fair to turn to page 635 of the same magazine and learn that St. Mary's was chartered February 28, 1855, under an Act of the General Assembly of the State of Indiana and was empowered **to confer such degrees as are used in academies of the highest standing. ' ' This Act was by no means inoperative. Long before a separate college building was even dreamed of, some students who had finished the advanced academic course with honor entered the post graduate courses which led to the degree of B. A. These degrees were recognized by no less an
924 The Catholic Educational Eeview
authority on matters educational than the late Dr. Will- iam T. Harris, when United States Commissioner of Edu- cation.
With the dawning of the twentieth century applicants for degrees became so numerous as to justify the expense of erecting a separate building and maintaining a separ- ate faculty to meet these growing demands. It was merely to show the wisdom of this radical departure from the established order of things as well as to note the close relationship in our day and country between material growth and educational activities, and not to take glory from any other workers in the field of education, that led the writer to mention particularly the increasing number of college students availing themselves of the increased facilities offered by Collegiate Hall.
Had the statement been made that ' ^ since the opening of St. Angela's Hall (the Commercement Auditorium) several hundred pupils had received their academic diplomas and medals, ' ' would any one have interpreted it as meaning there had been no graduates during the pre- vious half century? Neither can it be inferred that because *^ Since the opening of Collegiate Hall at St. Mary's in 1904, eighty young women have taken their degrees,'' that none were so honored previous to this event I S. M. A.
SURVEY OF THE FIELD
THE HIGH SCHOOL
The printed report of the Proceedings and Addresses of the eighth Annual Meeting of the Catholic Educational Association held in Chicago, Illinois, June 26-29, 1911, has, within the past few days, reached the members of the Association. The volume is filled with splendid papers dealing with topics of vital interest to our Catholic schools of all grades. The recent growth of our Catholic high schools and the many problems which they present
occupied the leading place during the pro- THE CATHOLIC cecdings. Three out of the five papers EDUCATIONAL read at the general sessions were devoted ASSOCIATION to the high school. The first paper. The
Eeport of the Committee on High Schools, by the Rev. James A. Burns, C. S. C, appeared in our September issue. The second paper. The High School, Its Relation to the Elementary School and to the College, was presented by the Rev. James J. Dean, 0. S. A. This paper will be closely studied by Catholic educators throughout the country, especially wherever the need of a Catholic high school is felt. Its opening paragraphs give a vivid picture of a condition of things which de- mands speedy remedy.
**At a recent meeting of the Executive Board of this Association one of our foremost Catholic educators de- clared that the most prominent characteristic of Cath- olic education in the United States at the present time is its utter lack of system. That such a statement could be made without eliciting any comment or bringing forth any expression of dissenting opinion is strong presump-
926 The Catholic Educational Eeview
tive evidence of its truth. That our parish schools are doing remarkable work, and this in spite of NEED OF serious difficulties, cannot be denied. Unf ortu- SYSTEM nately, their field is limited and their work, be- cause of its elementary character, can hardly be said to constitute an educational system. That our col- leges are accomplishing much, and this in the face of almost insurmountable obstacles, is equally true. Between the two, however, there is a wide field, the tilling of which seems to have received scant consideration. Candidly we are forced to admit that there is no such thing as a comprehensive Catholic system of secondary education. The parish schools have made some effort to supply the need with varying success, generally without proper equipment and without an efficient teaching staff."
The writer proceeds to point out the evil consequences attending upon the efforts of the colleges to deal with sec- ondary education and insists that our Catholic school system should conform, in its general divisions, at least, to that prevailing in the country at large and hence that it should have these four divisions : (1) The Elementary School System; (2) The Secondary School System; (3) The College; and (4) The Professional School. Each of these divisions corresponds to a psychological phase in mental development; each has its separate end to achieve; but they evidently should be so articulated one with the other that the child might pass up through the entire system without confusion or needless loss of time.
While the primary school has its own end TWOFOLD to achieve, it must also afford an adequate
AIM OF preparation for the high school. In like
HIGH SCHOOL manner, the high school has definite ends
of its own to attain, and in addition to these it should leave the pupil properly prepared for col- lege.
The public high school system has back of it more
SuBVEY OP THE FlELD 927
than half a century of growth, nevertheless, it has not yet satisfactorily solved the problem of combining the spe- cific end of the high school with the proper preparation for college. College men have used their position of van- tage to compel the high school to sacrifice its specific aims to college entrance requirements. The reaction against this procedure has, during the last few years, become marked and it has found expression in an interesting and suggestive report upon the Articulation of High School and College, submitted by a committee of nine appointed at the Boston meeting of the National Educational Asso- ciation, July, 1910. The committee con- HiGH SCHOOL sistcd of Clarcncc B. Kingsley, Manual COMMITTEE Training High School, Brooklyn, N. Y.; OF N. E. A. William M. Butler, Principal, Yeatman
High School, St. Louis, Mo.; Frank B. Dyer, Superintendent of Schools, Cincinnati, Ohio; Charles W. Evans, Principal, High School, East Orange, N. J. ; Charles H. Judd, Professor of Education, Univer- sity of Chicago ; Alexis F. Lange, Dean of College Facul- ties, University of California; W. D. Lewis, Principal, William Penn High School, Philadelphia, Pa.; William Orr, Deputy State Commissioner of Education, Boston, Mass.; William H. Smiley, Principal, East Side High School, Denver, Col. The report was adopted by the Secondary Department of the National Educational As- sociation at San Francisco, July 11, 1911, and consists of the following three parts :
A. Some preliminary considerations on the field and function of education in the high school.
B. A working definition of a well-planned high school course.
C. Eeasons for the adoption of this definition as the basis of college admission.
A careful perusal of the papers and discussions on the high school in the latest report of the Catholic Educa-
928 The Catholic Educational Eeview
tional Association will reveal the fact that the public high schools are facing many of the same difficulties that confront our Catholic secondary schools. The following five considerations are taken verbatim from the report of the Committee:
**1. Dr. Henry S. Pritchett, in his Annual Eeport as President of the Carnegie Foundation, finds that Ameri- can education, from elementary school to college, is suf- fering from the attempt to teach too many subjects to the same students at the same time. He ENKicHED believes that students taking the newer HIGH SCHOOL subjccts should not be required to carry all cuKRicuLUM the older subjects. He states emphatically that this is no argument against the en- riched curriculum of the high school; but that, on the contrary, the high school must go on still further enrich- ing its curriculum, and that it is the duty of the college to adjust itself to the high school thus broadened.
^*2. It is the duty of the tax-supported high school to give every student instruction carefully designed to return to society intelligent, able-bodied, and progressive citizens. To this end certain work should be included in the course of every student whether or not he contem- plates entering a higher institution. The responsibility of the high school in this matter cannot be delegated to the college because there is no guarantee that the par- ticular student will actually go to college.
**3. It is coming to be recognized that in a democratic society the high school has a distinct function. The high school period is the testing time, the time THE FUNCTION f or trying out different powers, the time OP THE HIGH for forming life purposes. Consequently, SCHOOL the opportunity should be provided for
the student to test his capacity in a fairly large number of relatively diverse kinds of work.
**In the high school the boy or girl may very properly
SUBVEY OF THE FlELD 929
make a start along the line of his chosen vocation, but a final choice should not be forced upon him at the begin- ning of that career. If he makes a provisional choice early in the course, there should be ample opportunity for readjustment later in the high school. For this reason the requirement of four years of work in any particular subject, as a condition of admission to a higher institution, unless that subject be one that may be properly required of all high school students, is illogical and should, in the judgment of this committee, be imme- diately discontinued.
^^4. Not only is it the duty of the high school to lay the foundations of good citizenship and to help in the wise choice of a location, but it is equally important that the high school should make specific contribution to the effi- ciency of the individual along various broad lines. In our industrial democracy the development of individual aptitudes and unique gifts is quite as important as the development of the common elements of culture. More- over, hard work is to be secured not by insistence upon uniformity of tastes and interests, but by the encour- agement of special effort along lines that appeal to the individual. Our education would gain in power and virility if we made more of the dominant interests that each boy and girl has at the time. It would seem that some have come to believe the oft-repeated statement that the liberal should precede the vocational ; but an organic conception of education demands the early introduction of training for individual usefulness, thereby blending
the liberal and the vocational ; for only then BLENDING docs the liberal receive its social significance THE LIBERAL and importance. In other words, the boy AND THE who pursucs both the liberal and the voca- vooATioNAL tioual sees the relation of his own work to
the work of others and to the welfare of society ; whereas the liberal without the vocational leaves
930 The Catholic Educationax. Eeview
him a mere spectator in the theater of life and the boxes in this theater are already overcrowded.
*^5. Mechanic arts, agriculture, or household science should be recognized as rational elements in the educa- tion of all boys and girls, and especially of those who have not as yet chosen their vocation. Under the autho- rity of the traditional conception of the best preparation for a higher institution, many of our public high schools are today responsible for leading tens of INDIVIDUAL thousands of boys and girls away from the AND SOCIAL pursuits for which they are adapted and in NEEDS which they are needed, to other pursuits for
which they are not adapted and in which they are not needed. By means of exclusively bookish cur- ricula false ideals of culture are developed. A chasm is created between the producers of material wealth and the distributers and consumers thereof.
^^The high school should in a real sense reflect the major industries of the community which supports it. The high school, as the local educational institution, should reveal to boys and girls the higher possibilities for more efficient service along the lines in which their own community is industrially organized.
*^Our traditional ideals of preparation for higher in- stitutions are particularly incongruous with the actual needs and future responsibilities of girls. It would seem that such high school work as is carefully designed to develop capacity for and interest in the proper manage- ment and conduct of a home should be regarded as of importance at least equal to that of any other DOMESTIC work. We do not understand how society can SCIENCE properly continue to sanction for girls high school curricula that disregard this funda- mental need, even though such curricula are planned in response to the demand made by some of the colleges for
SUBTBY OP THE FlELD 931
Comment on these considerations is scarcely necessary, but it may be well to point out the fact that our Catholic high schools have higher ends to attain. There will be general agreement in the contention of Dr. Pritchett that our schools, of all grades, are '* suffering from the at- tempt to teach too many subjects to the same students at the same time,'' but there will not be such unanimity in the remedy which he suggests and which looks very like the introduction of wide electivism in the high school. On the other hand, it seems only fair that the college should so modify its demands upon the high school as to leave the latter institution the requisite freedom for the attainment of its own specific ends. College entrance re- quirements have been rightly blamed for much of the con- fusion and discouragement to be found in our secondary schools. A severe indictment against them is brought by the Eev. James J. Dean in his paper on the high school* to which we have referred above.
**The reason commonly assigned by high school teach- ers for their failure in this respect is the twofold nature of the duty devolving upon them — the equipment of the great majority for the business of life and the prepara- tion of a few for college. Can it be that these duties are
inconsistent and irreconcilable, absolutely dis- coLLEGE tinct and independent of each other? If so, ENTRANCE the college is out of harmony with the life of REQUIRE- the nation and cannot long survive. To say MENTS the least, we must admit that the college is
partly to blame, and this for certain very defi- nite reasons. Among these we may enumerate (1) the ever-changing entrance requirements, widely advertised but seldom enforced, (2) the great variety of ridiculous courses leading to a degree for anything from psychology to typewriting, (3) the vagaries of college-bred instruc- tors and university trained superintendents. College en- trance requirements and college entrance examinations,
♦Proceedings of the 8th Annual Meeting of the Catholic Educational Association, p. 78.
932 The Catholic Educational Eeview
as at present regulated, are in many respects farcical. A great variety of unrelated subjects is demanded, and tests are given in a way that makes a true estimate of ability highly problematical. Syllabi are drawn up outlining the work upon which the examinations will be based, and each individual professor immediately proceeds to dis- regard them. Perhaps the most absurd thing about these examinations is that they may be taken piecemeal over a period of two or three years, immediately upon the com- pletion of a particular branch, thus affording a memory test over a brief space of time but giving absolutely no information as to the candidate's ability here and now. It matters little what the student may have known two or three years ago, the point to be determined is — what can he do nowT'
One need not agree with everything that Father Dean says and yet recognize the fact that there is some justice in his arraignment. To live our present life worthily is
the best means of preparing for the life to NEEDLESS comc. And so it must always remain true that conflict the best preparation for college will be found OF AIMS in a secondary education that best meets the
present needs of our developing youth. Power rather than content is the preparation needed both for successful achievement in the world and for a worthy career through the higher institutions of learning.
If *4t is the duty of the tax-supported high school to give every student instruction carefully designed to re- turn to society intelligent, able-bodied, and specific progressive citizens,'' it is equally the duty AIM OF of the Catholic high school to add to these
catholic requirements that of giving to the Church HIGH loyal and intelligent children. The forma-
BCHOOL tion of character, the instilling of high and noble ideals, must be included among those things which our Catholic people have a right to demand of all our secondary schools. **The high
Survey of the Field 933
school period is the testing-time, the time for try- ing out different powers, the time for forming life's purposes,'' and hence it should be the time for the cultivation of vocations to the priesthood and to the religious life. No matter what choice the boy or girl may make at the beginning of the high school ^career, they should find it possible at a later period to turn towards the religious life without undue loss of time, and hence it does not seem wise to require four years of Latin as a condition for college entrance. The work of the priest- hood and that of our teaching communities CULTIVATION is absolutely essential for the preservation OF VOCATIONS of the Church, and if our schools fail in the cultivation of vocations to these high callings, they cannot and should not survive no matter what other services they may render. Complaint is heard on all sides of the dearth of vocations to the priest- hood and there is not a teaching community in the country supplied with sufficient members to adequately perform the work required of it. It is true that voca- tions come from God, but it is none the less true that these vocations may be lost through defects in our edu- cational system. In building up our high schools, it seems clear that this subject must be regarded as one of para- mount importance.
The ^* working definition of a well-planned high school course" contains the following five elements :
**1. The quantitative requirement should he fifteen units,
''A unit represents a year's study in any subject in a
secondary school, constituting approximately a quarter
of a full year's work. This definition assumes that the
length of the school year is from thirty-
QUANTiTATivE six to f orty weeks, that a period is from
requieements forty to sixty minutes in length, and that
the study is pursued for four or five
periods per week. It further assumes that two hours of
934 The Catholic Educationai. Review
manual training or laboratory work is equivalent to one hour of classroom work.
**We believe that fifteen units is a better requirement than sixteen units, because: (1) Quantity should be sub- ordinated to quality. (2) Overstrain should be elimi- nated from the atmosphere of the school. (3) There should be one unit leeway, inasmuch as failure in one unit in one year should neither cost the student an extra year, nor tempt the principal to permit such student to try to carry an extra unit the succeeding year. (4) Students of exceptional ability should be permitted to earn five units per year, thereby shortening the high school period by one year. (5) Students poor in ability should be required to spend five years upon the course, attempting and per- forming three units each year, thereby diminishing fail- ures and reducing excessive per capita cost of instruction. Where fifteen units is adopted as the required number, it would seem reasonable that physical training and chorus singing should not be counted toward the fifteen units. We further recommend that the practice of admit- ting students to college weighed down with conditions be disapproved on the ground that it is injurious to the stu- dent, to the high school from which he comes, and to the college to which he goes.
**2. Every high school course should include at least three units of English, one unit of social science {includ- ing history), and one unit of natural science.
**(1) English. There is at the present time almost unanimous agreement among high school and college authorities that three or four units of English should be required of all. But the high school should ENGLISH be granted freedom to adapt the work to the real needs of its boys and girls. A course that is good in one high school may not be suited to the needs of another high school. Uniformity in this subject is utterly disastrous.
**(2) Social Science (including history). High school
SUBVEY OF THE FlELD 935
courses in history should always be taught so as to func- tion in a better understanding of modern institutions, current events, and present movements. Courses in
economics should be encouraged. Economic dis- sociAL cussions are paramount and ignorance of eco- sciENCE nomic principles is appalling. Every high school
student should be given a practical knowledge of affairs in his own community, political, industrial, and philanthropic; of the basic principles of state and national politics ; and of movements for social reform and international peace. Any high school course that secures part or all of the above results should be given full recog- nition.
^* (3) Natural Science, Where a unit of natural science is taught, it should be recognized as fulfilling the minimum requirement in natural science. In some schools an in- troductory course has been worked out, based upon physics, with a minimum of principle and a NATUKAL maximum of application, as most advan- sciENCE tageously meeting the needs of the pupils. In such a course there should be strict insistence upon accuracy and neatness in the presentation of note- books and laboratory exercises. Opportunity should be given for individual pupils to work along special lines, and to make contributions out of their studies to the work of the class as a whole. In other schools introductory science is based largely upon biology. General biological material is used to explain human functions. Personal hygiene, including sex hygiene, is taught. Special atten- tion is paid to problems of ventilation, sanitation, and the elimination of preventable diseases. Effort is made to secure intelligent cooperation with health au- BiOLOGY thorities and to form public opinion regarding higher standards of health. A certain amount of physics and chemistry is also introduced into this course. Either of the introductory courses would be
936 The Catholic Educational Eeview
placed intentionally in the first or second year of the high school.
**(4) Physical Training. Systematic physical training,
consisting of exercises and clean games should
PHYSICAL be required of all students; but this work
TKAiNiNG should uot bc regarded as counting towards
the fifteen required units.
" (3) Every high school course should include the com- pletion of two majors of three units each and one minor of two units, and one of the majors should he English.
^* Irrespective of the possibility that the student may go to a higher institution, it is desirable for him to do in the high school a certain amount of work of an advanced character. This provision also makes it possible for a part of the work in college to be a continuation of the work done in the high school, thereby pre- coNTiNuiTY serving continuity in the educational pro- iN EDUCA- cess. We recommend that the following be TioNALPKO- recognized as majors: (a) 3 units of Eng- CESS lish (required of all), (b) 3 imits of one
foreign language (Latin, German, French, or Spanish), (c) 3 units of mathematics (to include elementary algebra and plane geometry, and selections from plane trigonometry, solid geometry, intermediate algebra, and advanced algebra), (d) 3 units of social science (to include selections from history, civics, eco- nomics, municipal affairs, and history of industry or com- merce), (e) 3 units of natural science (to include selec- tions from an introductory science course, physics, chem- istry, astronomy, agriculture, physiography, elementary biology, advanced physiology, botany and zoology).
^^4. The requirements in mathematics and in foreign languages should not exceed two units of mathematics and two units of one language other than English.
*^For admission to engineering courses, the require- ment of a major in mathematics appears reasonable. For
SUBVEY OF THE FlELD 937
admission to a distinctively literary or classical course, the requirement of a major in one foreign language ap- pears reasonable. For other students a requirement of more than two units of mathematics and two units of one language, when not in accord with the dominant interests and aptitudes of the student, appears excessive.
^^5. Of the total fifteen units, not less than eleven units should consist of English, foreign language, COLLEGE mathematics, social science {including his- ENTEANCE tory) , natural science, or other worh conducted REQUiEE- hy recitations and home study. The other four MENTS units should he left as a margin to he used for additional academic work or for mechanic arts, household science, commercial work, and any other hind of work that the hest interests of the students appear to require,
*^No limitations should be imposed upon the use of the margin except that the instruction should be given by competent teachers with suitable equipment with classes not too large, and that the students ' work should be of a satisfactory grade. The recommendation that the sub- jects from which the margin may be made up be left entirely unspecified appears to be vital to the progressive development of secondary education. As long as formal recognition must be sought for each new subject, so long will the high school be subservient and not fully progressive. It ought to be possible for any strong high school at any time to introduce into its curriculum a sub- ject that either meets the peculiar needs of the community or that appears to be the most appropriate vehicle for teachers of pronounced individuality. This margin of four units is not excessive. It amounts to an average of only one unit a year. A course containing eleven units of academic or prepared work requires the student to carry, practically throughout the course, three of these subjects at a time. In general, this involves the prepara-
938 The Catholic EDucATioiTAL Eeview
tion of three lessons a day outside of the classroom. A daily assignment of more than three lessons together with manual training or vocational work in school hours, is not conducive to a high standard of excellence. In many of our high schools girls, especially, are subjected to a scholastic routine not designed to develop a strong race, either physically or mentally. (Note: Placing the num- ber of required units of academic or prepared work at eleven instead of twelve allows a leeway of one unit in case of a failure in the academic work. In case of no failure, by taking four units each year, the students may accomplish either an extra academic imit or an extra vocational unit.)
^^The provisions of the foregoing definition may be summarized as follows : Nine specified units. 3 units of English. 2 units of one foreign language. 2 units of mathematics. 1 unit of social science, including history, 1 unit of natural science. 2 additional academic units. One or both of these units must be advanced work to meet the requirements of a second major of three units. 4 units left as a margin for whatever work best meets the needs of the individual. ' *
This definition of a high school course would seem to meet the requirements of the case and it might well form a basis of discussion for a curriculum suited to our academies and high schools. Of course, we DEFINITION should havc to make provision for religious OF HIGH instruction and Church History, but this
SCHOOL need not unnecessarily burden the course.
couBSE It possesses sufficient elasticity to permit
the high school to do its work in preparing the great body of students who will not have opportunity for further academic instruction for their life work and at the same time it furnishes a reasonable foundation for college work. Whether we accept all the provisions of this definition or not, it seems evident that one of our
Survey of the Field 939
greatest needs at present is some easily understood and workable definition of a high school which will put an end to the present evil of college entrance examinations. Thousands of our young people are annually turned away from our institutions into non-Catholic colleges and uni- versities by the fear of having to pass entrance examina- tions to Catholic colleges, which, in reality, they could pass with considerable ease if the examinations were set with due regard to the students' actual achievements instead of being based on college requirements that are out of joint with our secondary schools and sometimes still further out of joint with the social and industrial conditions which both college and high school should en- deavor to meet.
The third part of the report from which we have been quoting is well worth the serious consideration of Cath- olic colleges and high schools.
** College admission should be based solely upon the completion of a well-planned high-school course. The committee submits the following argument in defense of this proposition:
** First: On the one hand, many students do not go to college because they took those courses which were dictated by their aptitude and needs instead of courses prescribed by the colleges. On the other hand, many students do not take the courses which they need because they think they may go to college. A committee of the Boston Head Masters ' Association, in a report approved by that Association last fall, stated the difficulty as fol- lows: *It frequently happens that a pupil in the public high school does not discover that he is likely to go to college until one, two, or three years of the high school course has been completed. As matters stand now, many of the courses in which he has received instruction and in which he may have done excellent work are entirely useless to him in so far as he may apply them to the pur-
940 The Catholic Educational Eeview
poses of college admission. The committee are of the opinion that this is decidedly wrong.' The idea that the student should, early in his high school course, decide whether he is going to college ignores one of the chief functions of the high school; namely, that of inspiring capable students with the desire for further THE OPEN education. It is coming to be clearly recog- DOOE nized that the chief characteristic of education
in a democracy as contrasted with that in a society dominated by class distinction, is the principle of the *open door.' This principle of the ^open door' is part of the great idea of the conservation of human gifts. It demands that personal work should be recognized wher- ever found. The college is one of the many doors that should be kept open. The colleges themselves bear tribute to this principle in the innumerable scholarships that they offer to boys and girls in humble circumstances. In fact, it has long been recognized in this country that one boy who seeks a college education because of a strong inner purpose in the face of obstacles is worth to the college and to society a do!2en boys who go to college merely because it is regarded as the proper thing to do. ' '
The reasoning of this paragraph is cogent and so emi- nently just that few, I believe, will object to it. We might add, however, that for our colleges the question of voca- tions to the priesthood is of more value than BELiGious any other consideration offered. If the call VOCATIONS to the priesthood comes late in the high-school course, to a boy who up to that time was pre- paring himself for active service in the world at the term- ination of the high-school course, the Catholic college should admit him, giving full credit for the work that he had done. If his Latin and Greek are below the usual requirement, such a boy will easily make up for it in his college course, because of the development which he has had in other directions. Moreover, an early development
SUEVEY OF THE FlELD 941
towards the practical affairs of life is a most excellent foundation for the boy who would become a priest.
** Second. The attempt that is often made to supple- ment the work now required by the colleges with such additional work as is required by the community and by a more adequate understanding of the needs of real boys and girls, is highly unsatisfactory. May 7th, 1910, the High School Teachers' Association of New York City issued a statement in which they affirmed: *We believe that the interest of the forty thousand boys and girls who annually attend the nineteen high schools of the city can- not be wisely and fully served under pres- DiscKEPANCY ent college entrance requirements. Our BETWEEN experience seems to prove the existence of
pEEPAKATioN a wide discrepancy between preparation FOR LIFE for life and preparation for college as
AND FOR defined by college entrance requirements.
COLLEGE The attempt to prepare the student for
college under the present requirements and at the same time to teach him such other subjects as are needed for life is unsatisfactory. Under these con- ditions the student often has too much to do. The quality of all his work is likely to suffer. The additional subjects are slighted because they do not count for admission to college. In such a course it is impossible for the student to give these subjects as much time and energy as social conditions demand.'
** Third. Even by faithfully following the usual college prescription, the best preparation for college is not se- cured. Abraham Flexner in his book, *The COLLEGE American College,' shows how the college is STANDING standing in its own way. He says that ^The IN ITS motive on which the college vainly relies,
OWN WAY self-realization, has got to be rendered opera- tive at the earliest stage.' *As a matter of fact,' he adds, 'the secondary period is far more favor-
942 The Catholic Educational Review
able than the college to the free exploration of the boy/ The restrictive preparatory courses prescribed by the colleges do not afford the kind of experience needed in the high school.
*^ Fourth. In the attempt to prepare for the widely varying requirements of different colleges the energies of the school are dissipated. The energy that should be devoted to meeting actual individual needs DISSIPATION of students is expended upon the study of OFENEKGY collcgc catalogucs. An institution that should be encouraged to develop internally is made subordinate and subservient. As an illustration of the confusion in the requirements of different col- leges, we find that one college requires one foreign lan- guage, counts work in a second, and gives no credit for a third; another college requires two foreign languages, and requires one unit in a third, unless music or physics is presented as a substitute ; and a third college absolutely requires three foreign languages.
*^ Fifth. But by far the most serious objection to the present condition is, as Commissioner Snedden says, to be found in the restrictive effect upon true high school development. The high school today is the arena in which our greatest educational problems should be worked out. High school attendance in SOLUTION OP this country has increased almost four- EDucATiONAL fold withiu the last twenty years. If the PKOBLEMS college will recognize the true function of
the high school this marvelous growth will continue unabated and the American high school will become an institution unparalleled as a factor for demo- cratic living. It is doubtful whether any nation ever before possessed such an opportunity. ' '
This report, throughout, lays strong emphasis on the fact that the high school period is the period of forming
Survey of the Field 943
life purposes, the period of plastic development. Dur- ing the grammar school period the children are too im- mature and too little aware of their own HIGH SCHOOL possibilities to determine their life's PERIOD FOR work. On the other hand, the college
FORMING LIFE period is too late in life for new begin- PURPOSES nings, unless in the exceptional case.
From considerations such as those ad- vanced in this report, the need of Catholic high schools should be clearly seen. Even if our energies should have to be withdrawn, in some measure, from elementary school and college, we cannot afford to neglect the children during the most important period of their life. But, in reality, there is no need to diminish in the smallest degree what we have heretofore been doing in parochial school and college.
The faith and generosity that built up NEED OF these institutions and which still supports CATHOLIC them is not exhausted. God is blessing our HIGH people every day with larger means, and
SCHOOLS when they realize the importance of the Catholic high school, there is no room to doubt that they will meet the demand in a worthy man- ner. Perhaps the greatest obstacle in the way of the devel- opment of our high schools is to be found in the diffi- culty of securing the adequate preparation of a sufficient number of teachers for the work. The Educational De- partment of the Catholic University has taken this matter in hand and through the Sisters' College it has already made a splendid beginning. In the near future all of our Sisterhoods will be able to secure the best training that the age affords for their future high school teachers. The Educational Department of the University should also be in a position to contribute very materially towards the solution of the many intricate problems connected with the articulation of Catholic high schools and colleges.
Thomas Edward Shields.
DISCUSSION
TEACHING THE CHILD TO THINK
Much of the work of the primary grades is of necessity devoted to the instrumentalities of thought. The child must be taught his alphabet, he must learn to read and write and spell. And these are such big undertakings that we sometimes lose sight of the fact that the child in the primary grades no less than the advanced pupil soon tires of drills ; he is in need of mental food suited to his capacity, and unless this be supplied to him his mind and heart cannot develop normally. Unconnected fragments do not meet his needs. He has not within himself large resources, nor has he yet achieved the power to build up a unified fabric of the divergent elements that are too fre- quently offered to him. Of course the child needs change and variety, but these things must be had without sacri- ficing unity. Again, the child's power is too feeble to grasp the thought in its first presentation. He needs repetition even more than does the mature student. But if we content ourselves with repeating the same unde- veloped thought, it soon palls on the child, who finds noth- ing more in it that a wearisome memory task. The same thought must be presented to him over and over again, but each time in a new setting and in a more developed form. This is in line with what has been said of the context method of reading and of the method of teaching spelling which was outlined in the last number of the Review. The child meets the word in various contexts until he learns its meaning without effort. And so when he meets the thought repeatedly in a new setting, it devel- ops in his mind without conscious effort.
This method of teaching the child to think controlled in large measure the writing of the Catholic Education
DisoussioN 945
Series of primary text-books. For an illustration of this turn to the first chapter of Religion, First Book. Here home will be found to be the central thought. The idea of home is presented to the child in the first instance in con- nection with the robins. They come in the early spring, braving the cold and the scarcity of food, to build a home. They labor together in the building of a nest, and the labor and love is all for the sake of the little ones which the mother bird lovingly gathers under her wings. The child is thus enabled to see that love is the power which creates home. After the children have dramatized this story and have thus learned something of its inward meaning, the same lesson is presented to them in a new setting in their own homes. They are taught to appre- ciate their mother's arms and their father's protecting care. And after they have lived through this scene, enhanced by their new insight into the meaning of home, their eyes are turned towards the home of Jesus. The growing thought of home is thus utilized as an appercep- tion mass through which the child is led into a knowledge of those things which transcend his experience and our heavenly home begins to dawn upon him with something of its native power and inner meaning.
In the second chapter a single phase of home is emj>ha- sized as the children learn how the father and mother robin labor all day long to procure nourishment for their little ones, and from this they are led to consider how their father and mother labor to feed them. The transi- tion from this to the story of the loaves and fishes and to the prayer **Give us this day our daily bread'' is easy and natural.
The third chapter takes up the consideration of home as a refuge from temptation and danger and follows up the theme in a similar threefold aspect. And so on, from chapter to chapter, through the First and Second Books, the idea of home and its various aspects is developed in the child's mind. The thought is never repeated in the
946 The Catholic Educational. Review
same words, nor in the same phase ; it grows and develops from page to page. There is repetition, over and over again, but the thought is always presented in a new set- ting and is made to reveal new elements that were hereto- fore latent or concealed from the child's perceptions.
Out of this central thought many other allied thoughts are made to develop. As for example the idea of the shepherd. Our children for the most part have no knowl- edge of the shepherd life to which Our Saviour so fre- quently referred. They are not, therefore, in a condi- tion to understand the wealth of loving tenderness which Our Saviour conveyed to His hearers when He spoke of Himself as the Good Shepherd, nor without this key would they ever be in a position to understand the com- mission which Our Saviour gave to St. Peter when He charged him with the duty of feeding His lambs and feed- ing His sheep. It is important that the child be given this thought in its fulness, but how may this be accom- plished? To transport him to a Western sheep ranch, where hirelings round up the sheep for the slaughter, would not serve the purpose, even were it practicable. And we cannot transport the child back through the centuries to the days of the Boy-Shepherd progenitor of Our Saviour. The child who is not unusually situated knows something of the meaning of mother-love, and this knowledge must be strengthened and deepened first and then it must be utilized to lead him into an understanding of the love which fills the shepherd's heart.
In the first chapter of Religion, First Book, when Jesus stands before the children as their model, and sets for them the standard of their appreciation they are told: * * Jesus loves the sunbeams and the breezes. He loves the sky and the stars. He loves the birds and the flowers. He loves the sheep and their shepherd. He loves all who work for others. ' ' The child is not yet in a condition to grasp a chain of reasoning, but he will not fail to connect the two things, the love that Jesus bears the sheep and
Discussion 947
their shepherd and the love which He extends to all who work for others. The germ of the shepherd thought has thus been planted in the child's mind at the very outset. It seemed wisest to let it germinate there whilst we were busy developing in the children's minds the consciousness of parental love. In the beginning of the Second Book, however, occasion is found to return to the theme. The religious lesson in the first chapter centers around the mystery of the Annunciation. It is fitting, therefore, that we follow the example set by the Evangelist and give to the child something of Our Lord's geneaology. For we are concerned that he understand that Christ is truly human as well as truly divine.
The story of King David begins as follows : *' Flocks of quiet sheep are feeding, Little lambs are playing near. And the watchful shepherd leading Keeps them safe from harm and fear.
** David was a shepherd boy. He lived in Bethlehem a long, long time ago. His father gave him charge over the sheep. David never forget them. He took them to the brook to drink and went with them to the pasture. When the little lambs were sick he took them in his arms and fed them and carried them home. David loved his sheep very much and they loved him. They followed him wherever he went and came when he called them. One day David was playing on his harp in the shade of a tree. The sheep and the lambs were all listening to him. A big lion stole up behind the flock and grabbed one of the little lambs in his mouth. He started to run off with it to eat it. David heard the lamb 's cry and ran after the lion. He caught him by the neck and killed him. Then he took the poor little lamb in his arms and soothed it and brought it back to its mother. God was so pleased with David for his care of the sheep and the lambs that He made him a great king."
948 The Catholic Educational Eeview
The child will not fail to see in David's attitude towards the sheep the tenderness and the solicitous care of a mother for her baby nor will David's courage be without its effect in impressing upon the child the fact that the shepherd's love is so like that of a mother that it leads to the same deeds of heroism and self-forgetful- ness whenever the loved one is in danger. We have here the shepherd idea developed for the child, but it is not developed as an isolated fact; there are many elements bound up in the single sketch. A preparation is being made for the story of that eventful journey of Mary and Joseph to the City of David and for the Saviour who willingly lays down His life for His sheep.
This sketch is followed in the subsequent chapter by the story of the Holy Night and of how the angels appeared to the humble shepherds near the City of David and announced to them the truce that was being made between heaven and earth. The children are taught how tender love for the weak and defenseless is the necessary prepa- ration for the reception of the glad tidings which the angels brought from heaven. Finally, the book closes with the story of the Good Shepherd.
With the idea of the shepherd developed to this extent, the children are prepared to see in St. Peter and his successors the continuation on earth of the Shepherd's loving care. The first third of Eeligion, Third Book, is devoted to enlarging upon the idea of the good shepherd that is, salvation through leadership. They led step by step from the Expulsion from the Garden down through the Patriarchal days to see that God haves His people through divinely appointed leaders. And so at a later date He sends them Moses and the Prophets to prepare them for the coming of the Saviour who fittingly describes Himself as the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep.
It must not be supposed, however, that we can proceed with the child to the full unfolding of a thought in the same
Discussion 949
manner as might prove acceptable were we dealing with adults. When a certain phase of development of a thought is reached we must let it lie until the child's mind, developing along many other lines, stands in need of an enlarged and developed presentation of a thought that at an earlier stage could only be grapsed in its germ- inal form. And thus in the development of the shepherd idea it was necessary to pause while the child reached a keener comprehension of parental love and of the many forms in which this love was exercised for the benefit of the child. And again it was necessary that the child should learn of temptation, of sin and redemption as well as of the love of the Heavenly Father that sent Jesus down to earth to suffer and die for the redemption of a fallen race. For purposes of analysis, indeed, we may follow separately the development of each thought given to the child, but in the actual presentation to the child, these various thoughts must be interwoven in one organic development which preserves throughout its many-sided symmetry and its perpetual functions.
In this way only can the child be taught to think. Formal definitions and analyses are beyond him. The rules of right reasoning will remain a sealed book to him for some years to come, but the teacher, by following system- atically the unfolding of each thought in its relation to the developing mind, will have taught the child effectually how to think and the rules of the process may easily be learned at a later date. Nor should it be forgotten that in teaching the child after this maimer his mind and heart are being fed on the food supplied by the Heavenly Father. It is time that we were done with the old fallacy which led many well-meaning teachers to feed children's souls on words and word drills at a time when their imaginations and their hearts were famishing for want of real food.
Thomas Edwabd Shields.
CUKRENT EVENTS
THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OP AMERICA
The distinction conferred on the Church in America by Pope Pius X in elevating three of our prelates to the dignity of the Cardinalate has called forth a universal expression of gratitude and satisfaction. The Catholic University rejoices in a very special sense over these elevations to the Sacred College, for two of the Cardinals-Elect are members of its Board of Trus- tees, and the retiring Apostolic Delegate has been during his residence in the Capital its counsellor and constant friend.
On the evening of November 9 Monsignor Falconio paid a farewell visit to the University. A reception was tendered to him in the Assembly Room, McMahon Hall, by the faculty and students. His address on that occasion was a fervid expres- sion of his affection for the University, and of his conviction that it would in the future more than realize the hopes for its success entertained by its saintly founder, Pope Leo XIII. After the reception, the Cardinal-Elect was the guest of honor at a banquet given by the Rt. Rev. Rector of the University. The faculty, the presidents of the aflSliated colleges, the Very Rev. Monsignor Cerretti, Auditor of the Apostolic Delegation, and other distinguished clerics and laymen were present.
Rt. Rev. Monsignor Shahan sailed from New York on Novem- ber 14 in the company of the Cardinals-Elect, Falconio and Farley, for a visit to the Eternal City. He will assist at the ceremonies of investiture of the new Cardinals, and will return to America in December.
Doctor Thomas C. Carrigan, of the Departments of Law and Education, has been appointed Acting-Dean of the School of Law for the remainder of the scholastic year. The office of Dean was made vacant on November 6, by the sudden death of Judge William C. Robinson, LL.D.
A NOTABLE FOUNDATION.
On November 14, Sir James J. Ryan, a prominent business man of Philadelphia and intimate friend of Cardinal Gibbons,
CuREENT Events. 951
donated the sum of |50,000 to the Catholic University to estab- lish a chair in the School of Sacred Sciences for the study of the Old Testament. The foundation will be known as the "James J. Ryan and Hannah Cusack Ryan Chair of Sacred Scripture." The generous donor has long been known for his extensive benefactions. In recognition of them and other services to the Church he has been decorated by the Holy See with Knighthood in the Order of St. Gregory.
NEW CATHOLIC COLLEGE FOR WOMEN
The movement to establish a Catholic college for women in the city of Chicago has met with general approval and support. The project is undertaken by the Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, whose motherhouse is located at Du- buque, Iowa, and who have been for many years one of the most flourishing teaching communities in the central and western parts of this country. The Superioress of the congregation received on September 26 the following encouraging letter from His Grace, the Most Rev. Archbishop Quigley :
Chancery Office,
Chicago, 111., Rev. Mother Superioress, Sept. 26, 1911.
Sisters of Charity, B.V.M., Chicago. Dear Rev. Mother :
I have heard with satisfaction that the Sisters of Charity are preparing to establish a college for women in the city of Chicago. An institution of this kind is greatly needed in Chicago, as there are many Catholic women following univer- sity courses, with a view of obtaining degrees, in non-Catholic colleges and universities.
The work, therefore, has my entire sympathy and fullest ap- probation. This work needs only to be mentioned to our Cath- olic people to be appreciated and supported. I feel confident that the many Catholics of our great city, and particularly the Catholic societies of women, will give it encouragement and financial assistance. Wishing God's blessing upon the underaking, I remain, Yours truly in Xto.,
J. E. Quigley,
Archbishop.
952 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Six of the sisters of the community who will be assigned to the faculty of the new college are at present enrolled among the students of Sisters' College, at the Catholic University. They are candidates for degrees and are specializing in the Schools of Philosophy, Letters, and Science.
CONVENTION OP CATHOLIC YOUNG MEN
The thirty-seventh annual convention of the Catholic Young Men's National Union, held in October at Washington, D. C, marked an important advance in the history of the organiza- tion. There are now 104 societies and clubs in the Union. Ten of these are in the archdiocese of Baltimore, where a diocesan union was organized last summer. Arrangements have been made to establish another union in the diocese of Wilmington, and it is expected that similar steps will be taken in a short time in the dioceses of Trenton and Harrisburg.
President William C. Sullivan in his annual report said that the Union was in far better condition than the most sanguine imagined possible a year ago. It is successfully conducting at present a national essay contest, a lecture bureau, a literary exchange and bureau, interdiocesan debating tournaments, study clubs, and it is encouraging athletics. In urging a reor- ganization of the literary committee, he declared that attention should be given to public morals particularly in relation to theatrical productions, newspapers, magazines and periodicals, fiction and historical works. He said also that there are 468 Catholic athletes registered in the Catholic Amateur League which the National Union directs.
The theme assigned for the national essay contest was, ^'The Church of All Nations." The board of judges consisted of Rev. Henry C. Schuyler, Mr. Martin I. J. Griffin and Mr. John J. O'Shea, all of Philadelphia. John F. Everling, of Philadel- phia, won first prize, a set of the Catholic Encyclopedia ; David A. Newton, Jersey City, second prize, a set of Irving's works; John J. Kehoe, Conshohocken, Pa., third prize, a gold watch. Two special prizes were given to Joseph A. Cummings, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and Francis B. Condon, of Central Falls, R. L
The following resolutions were adopted by the National Union :
CuBRENT Events. 953
"Whereas, It has been deemed opportune by Our Most Holy Father, Pope Pius X, to raise his voice in the interest o.f universal peace; be it
"Resolved, That we join our prayers to Guy Most Holy Father's counsel, that the God of Peace may influence the na- tions to observe the laws of justice in their mutual relations.
"Whereas, James Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Balti- more, has, through the favor of God, completed the fiftieth year of his priesthood and the twenty-fifth of his Cardinalate ; be it
"Resolved, That we, representatives of the Catholic young men of the United States, extend our respectful congratula- tions to His Eminence.
"Whereas, The continually increasing immigration from countries traditionally Catholic constitutes a grievous problem for both Church and country, that these immigrants be safe- guarded in their faith and helped to right citizenship ; and
"Whereas, This National Union of Catholic Young Men ac- cepts its responsibility in charity of caring for the young men included in this immigration ; be it
"Resolved, That this Union pledges its best effort, in accord- ance with its motto, ^God and Our Neighbor,' to help these young men to proper religious and social environment, and by placing every means of instruction and recreation at the dis- posal of this Union and its constituent parts aid these, our brothers, to those privileges of religious and civil prosperity that we enjoy.
"Whereas, The results already obtained by various local unions in caring for the school boy and the young working boy as to his instruction and recreation have been definite and far-reaching; be it
"Resolved, That this National Union pledges its aid and en- couragement to all such efforts, and urges an ever-increasing attention on the part of local organizations to opportunities within their individual reach ; that every society affiliated with this Union urge upon its individual members the propriety and almost the necessity of joining the men's religious societies connected with their parishes, such as the Holy Name Society and the Men's League ; that we affirm and repeat the resolutions favorably acted upon at former conventions relating to the support and encouragement of Catholic schools and the Cath-
954 The Catholic Educational Eeview
olic press ; that we urge both individual and concerted support of the movements to purge the stage of all questionable per- formances.
"Whereas, Having before us the Report to this convention of the Alliance Board regarding the steps taken by the Ameri- can Federation of Catholic Societies to establish a national organization which will offer to the Catholic young men social and athletic inducements with Catholic association and sur- roundings; be it
"Resolved, That the American Federation of Catholic So- cieties be earnestly urged to give concerted effort, along with the Young Men's National Union and the Young Men's Insti- tue, through their valuable influence with the clergy and laity, to develop in the various parishes a sentiment to assist the promulgation of these two-named young men's societies."
Mr. William C. Sullivan, of Washington, D. C, was reelected President of the Union, and the Rev. Joseph M. Corrigan, of Philadelphia, Spiritual Director. The other officers elected are : First Vice-President, Hubert J. Rowe, of Newark; Second Vice-President, William H. Gallagher, of Wilmington; Third Vice-President, Leo A. Kirschner, of Toledo ; Secretary, J. Con- nor French, of Trenton; Treasurer, Leo A. Smith, of Phila- delphia. Members of the Executive Board: Rev. James C. Comiskey, of Dover, Del.; Thomas B. McNamee, of Washing- ton ; John A. Moran, of Newark ; Charles Gerhard, of Philadel- phia ; William R. Foley, of Brooklyn ; B. J. Miller, of Cleveland/^ John J. Kehoe, of Conshohocken, Pa.; James J. Doherty, of Trenton; W. V. Lyons, of Baltimore, and James Roche, of Alexandria, Va.
The National Union decided to hold the next annual meeting at Brooklyn, N. Y. Rev. Augustine Hackert, S.J., of Toledo, was named as the delegate to the next convention of the American Federation of Catholic Societies at Louisville in 1912.
EFFECT OF HIGHER ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS
The higher entrance requirements for the professional and technical schools of the University of Missouri, which became operative at the opening of the present school year, have al- ready shown a marked effect on the registration and distribu-
Current Events. 955
tion of students, according to the New York Evening Post of November 12. At present only those students who can show four years of high school training and at least two years of work in a standard college are admitted to the following schools: Law, Medicine, Journalism, Education, Civil Engi- neering, Mechanical Engineering, and Chemical Engineering. The rule has not yet been applied to the College of Agriculture, which still admits graduates of accredited high school courses. It is said that the growth in the enrolment has been checked by the adoption of these higher standards. Losses are shown this year in the Schools of Law and Engineering, and there is a slight loss in Journalism. The Schools of Education and Medi- cine had previously enforced the same requirement, and have begun to show a tendency to regain their lost ground numeri- cally. However, the new requirements led to an increase in the College of Arts and Sciences, which combined with the normal increase in the College of Agriculture makes the en- rolment of the University about three thousand, a slight in- crease over the registration of last year.
A DISTINGUISHED CATHOLIC DIPLOMAT
The Honorable Herbert Goldsmith Squiers, LL.D., of Wash- ington, D. C, who died in London on October 19 after a long illness, was a distinguished Catholic member of our diplo- matic service. Mr. Squiers was born in Canada in 1859. He received his education in this country, studying at the Can- andaigua Academy, the Minnesota Military Institute, the Mary- land Agricultural College, and the United States Artillery School, where he graduated in 1880. He served with distinc- tion in the later Indian Campaigns, and in 1890 was made lieu- tenant of the Seventh Cavalry. In 1891 he resigned his lieu- tenancy to enter the diplomatic service. Under the adminis- tration of President Roosevelt he acted as Minister to Cuba, and later accepted a similar appointment in Panama.
Mr. Squiers was for a time instructor in military science and tactics at St. John's College, Fordham. In 1906 he re- ceived the honorary degree of LL.D from that institution. He was in recent years a benefactor of the Catholic University of America where he maintained two scholarships for deserving lay students.
956 The Catholic Educational Eeview
GROWTH OF THE WINONA SEMINARY
On Tuesday afternoon, October 24, ground was broken on the campus of Winona Seminary, Winona, Minn., for the erec- tion of a new class and lecture hall. Appropriate ceremonies marked the occasion. The first shovelful of ground was lifted by the Rev. F. T. English, who, in the absence of the Rt. Rev. Bishop, addressed the Sisters and students on the happy in- ception of the new undertaking. The following was the order of exercises :
1. Opening Words and Lifting of the First Ground. Rev. F. T. English.
2. Psalm, "Nisi Dominus." The Glee Club aiid Choir.
3. Psalm, "Laudato Dominum." The Glee Club and Choir.
4. Prayer for the New Undertaking. Rev. T. F. O'Connor.
5. Hymn, "Holy God." The Seminary Choral Club.
The Winona Seminary is one of our most successful Catholic colleges for women. The courses offered there, particularly those leading to the bachelor's degree in arts and music, have been favorably recognized by leading colleges and universities. It is gratifying to learn that more spacious accommodations are demanded by the increasing number of students in the higher courses. The new building will be pushed rapidly to completion. It will provide class and lecture halls, a thorough laboratory equipment for the study of the natural sciences, and a new conservatory of music. The latter will contain seventy practice rooms for piano, voice, and violin, besides concert rooms and studio apartments. The cost of the new structure is estimated at about |150,000.
HIGH SCHOOL FRATERNITIES ABOLISHED
The faculty of Horace Mann High School, an institution affiliated with Columbia University, New York, has announced its determination to abolish secret societies in the school. An order has been issued which calls for the disbandment before 1913 of the two fraternities. Phi Sigma and Delta Sigma and the two sororities. Delta Nu, and Theta Chi, in which it is believed the majority of the students have been enrolled.
CuEBENT Events. 957
HOLY CROSS ACADEMY — DUNBAETON
One of the most interesting lecture courses ever given at the Academy was begun in October by Dr. Thomas 0. Carrigan, of the Catholic University, on "What Women Should Know of Law." Although the subject sounds formidable for young women, the lectures have proved very attractive and Doctor Carrigan's audience has steadily increased in numbers. In the future he will meet his pupils, now too numerous for a class- room, every Friday morning in the General Assembly Hall.
The Seniors are enjoying the privilege of attending the public lectures of the Catholic University on Thursday afternoon.
The teachers and pupils of the Academy deeply appreciated the farewell visit of Monsignor Falconio, made shortly before his departure for Rome. Other visitors in November were: Rt. Rev. Monsignor Shahan, Very Rev. Monsignor Cerretti, acting-Delegate; Rev. William H. Ketchem, of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions ; Rev. Doctor Fletcher, of Holy Cross Cathedral, Baltimore; two former pupils, daughters of Presi- dent Gomez, of Cuba, with their husbands, Lieut. Colonel Coello and Doctor Mencia. The latter were accompanied by Senor Rivero, the Cuban Minister, and his daughters, who are pupils of the school.
Patrick J. McCormack.
REVIEWS AND NOTICES
Report of the Proceedings and Addresses of the Eighth Annual Meeting of the Catholic Educational Association, Chi- cago, Illinois, June 26-29, 1911, Columbus, Ohio, Catholic Educational Association, pp. viii-o03. This volume is in every way equal to its predecessors. It forms the eighth volume of a series of great value to all edu- cators and of such special importance in Catholic educational literature as to demand a place in all of our schools. ^^In the deliberations of the Chicago Convention special consideration was directed to several subjects of general interest and of great importance. The first was the attitude of a certain educa- tional and financial institution towards religious education and the general educational interests of the country. As a result of the study and discussion of a careful presentation of the facts, the conviction was shared by all that a strong tendency toward monopoly of education exists, and that methods and systems which have prevailed in American industrial life should not be introduced into the field of education. A second subject was that of the curriculum. The need of coordination in our work has been felt for many years, and the lack of a suitable plan of study has been the cause of much confusion. The difificulty of formulating any comprehensive plan has been so great that educators hesitate to undertake the work. It is the opinion of all that something should be done to give more unity and consistency to our endeavors, and the determination to find a way to bring about a better coordination was one of the significant notes of the Convention. An interesting and in- structive session of the Convention dealt with the problem of the affiliation of Catholic schools with secular institutions. The report is a new evidence of the growing spirit of unity and cooperation that now characterizes the educational work of the Church in the United States."
This passage, taken from the Introduction, gives sufficient indication of the scope and value of the discussions. The Review has already published several of the papers read at the Convention. They should serve to give our readers further
Eeviews and Notices. 959
evidence of the character of the work which the Catholic Edu- cational Association has been doing. The results of the dis- cussions in the Chicago meeting are summed up in the follow- ing six resolutions:
"1. Whereas, the Catholic Educational Association recog- nizes as its mission the furthering of Catholic education under the guidance of the Church; Be it resolved, That we hereby pledge to His Holiness, the one accredited and infallible teacher of truth, our fealty, our service, and our devotion.
"2. Whereas, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is a private educational agency which is attempting to exercise an undue and irresponsible supervision over the institutions of higher learning in this country, which aims at de-Christianizing American education, which is, therefore, a menace to our intellectual and moral well-being as a people; Be it resolved. That this Association deprecate the illiberal and sectarian attitude of the Foundation toward American universities and colleges of standing and established repute.
"3. Whereas, the desire of Catholic teachers to obtain ad- vanced training is a healthy sign of progress; Be it resolved, That in the judgment of this association the interests of Cath- olic education can be safeguarded against the prevailing natu- ralistic tendencies only by such instruction being had under Catholic auspices.
"4. Whereas, excellent work is being done in the field of Catholic secondary education. Be it resolved. That this asso- ciation recognize and approve the development of the Catholic high school movement.
"5. Whereas, grave danger confronts our Catholic people in the unsound economic and sociological theories of the day and in the irreligious tendencies of modern educational meth- ods; Be it resolved, That this association urge upon Catholic teachers the necessity of directing their pupils to Catholic institutions of higher learning.
"6. Whereas, the university extension movement, the reading circle movement, and the Catholic summer school movement, constitute an educational fact of great importance and promise, in so far as they supplement the work of Catholic schools, academies and colleges ; Be it resolved. That we recognize and commend these movements to the Catholic public."
Thomas Edward Shields.
960 The Catholic Educational Eeview
Padagogische Grundfragen. Von Dr. Franz Krus, S. J. Inns- bruck ; New York : Fr. Pustet & Co. 1911. Seiten 450.
While recognizing that pedagogy is a progressive science which profits by every real advance in thought and culture, the author of Padagogische Grundfragen believes that most of the confusion in the educational world at present can be at- tributed to a regrettable disregard of the traditional principles on which a sound educational theory should rest. He begins this comprehensive work, consequently, with a treatise on the meaning of education and places therein many sane warnings against those so-called systems and schemes of training which usurp the name of education. He is careful to define the end and scope of Christian education and to distinguish it from many modern notions that have robbed the science of its real meaning.
The chief educational factors and agencies, such as the home, the church, institutions in general and schools in particular, are considered with the view of promoting their better co- ordination and cooperation. Many other questions, such as moral and physical education, the training of the intellect, will and emotional faculties, manual training and religious, in the stricter sense, are treated with a fulness and breadth of view that is very commendable. Incidentally, Dr. Krus opens up many interesting discussions in these chapters; one, for ex- ample, is in regard to the value of experimental psychology applied to education. We must thank him for his clear expo- sition of the principles which are to guide the Christian student in the sciences of pedagogy as well as in psychology, and for his classification of many important writings and views. His citations from Catholic authors, ancient and modern, and refer- ences to Catholic works, especially in German, will be very much appreciated by the Catholic student of these fundamental questions in pedagogy.
Patrick J. McCormick.
CATHC 1^^ ^g^ ^22 ^2 SMC ^
Catholic Educational Review BCZ-0797