Part 16

Henry Bernard, a young lawyer of Connecticut, did for his State a work similar to that of Horace Mann in Massachusetts. He was a man of keen insight, and struck at the root of many evils. Finding that public money was misapplied, and many primary children neglected, he went about to work a reform. “Teachers were awakened, associations for mutual improvement were formed.... He established an educational periodical,” wholly at his own expense. In 1843 this strong-hearted, level-headed man was called by the State of Rhode Island to straighten out the tangles in her educational system. From this beginning has grown the public school system as seen to-day. It is interwoven in the meshes of our national history from Boston to San Francisco, and from St. Paul to New Orleans.

[Sidenote: Reaction in colleges]

The colleges had made necessary the academies—classical preparatory schools; and these sent forth men who modeled the high schools after the academic course. The Christian colleges set the pace to begin with; then, finding themselves outrun in the race, to meet the needs, the nineteenth century sees a gradual but none the less decided change in their courses of instruction. Here are a few of the changes, with the reasons for them. Says Boone:—

“The current and recent magnifying of the humanities, the growing recognition of an altruistic and co-operative spirit in civil and social and political life, the increasing complexity of social forces, new aspects of government, the fundamental oneness of all life, and sequent idea of the solidarity of human society, have created for the student new lines of investigation.”[165]

How true! How wide the separation between the ideal held before the early Harvard and that of the Harvard of to-day. “The sequent idea of the solidarity of human society” as a new line of investigation for students, seems almost like mockery when we see the fundamental principles of the government loosening, and ready to crumble on the application of some unexpected force.

[Sidenote: Further changes]

The same departure from the study of God’s Word and the record of his dealings with men and nations—God in history and politics—is noticeable in the curriculum of each modern college and university. To quote again from Boone, “The history of customs and institutions, the growth of opinions and sentiments as crystallized in social forms, the study of governments and religions, of art and industry, are clamoring for a place in the curriculum. Comparative philology, with the enlarged interest of modern languages, belongs to the present period.” Such a curriculum can not but have weight in molding the minds of men, and the history we are making to-day is but the resultant of the thoughts inculcated in our modern colleges.

[Sidenote: Evolution taught]

The chair in science has been greatly enlarged: the ideas of evolution as advocated by Darwin, Huxley, and Dana have crept into the lecture courses, and having been received, bid fair to stay. Says Boone: “It has been said that biological study [in the universities] began with Huxley in England, and later in this country.” “Of the several courses in Harvard, thirty per cent are in science, and in most other contemporary institutions a similar large ratio obtains. This has had its influence upon the accepted curriculum.” This science would be termed by the Apostle Paul “science falsely so called.”

[Sidenote: Multiplication of courses]

“Great changes have occurred in the twenty years [since 1868] in the multiplication of courses and the accompanying specializations of study.” Perhaps figures will be more impressive on this point than mere words. Boone states that “of the forty-seven higher institutions whose reports are given by Dr. Adams, including Harvard, Columbia, and Brown, and ten leading State universities, forty-six report an aggregate of _one hundred and eighty-nine_ courses in history and closely related studies.” Cornell now offers so many courses that should a student attempt to take them all, it would require more than the natural life of a man to complete them.

[Sidenote: A cramming system with children]

It is not with any spirit of condemnation that these things are stated, but it can be seen by all that there is a meaning which inevitably attaches to these changes. The multiplicity of subjects taught has led to a wonderful book study, and a student’s whole life is spent in an attempt to put into his own head the thoughts which others have written for him. The spirit of the universities was caught by the academies, and by the high schools, and is reflected even in the lower grades. It is the beginning of the cramming process now so forcibly denounced by a few true educators. Readers of our magazines are familiar with the ideas expressed by Mrs. Lew Wallace in “The Murder of the Modern Innocents,” by the editor of the _Ladies’ Home Journal_, and others. I deem it sufficient to quote from Mr. Edward Bok, who startled American homes by stating that “in five cities of our country alone there were, during the last school term, over sixteen thousand children between the ages of eight and fourteen taken out of the public schools because their nervous systems were wrecked, and their minds were incapable of going on any farther in the infernal cramming system which exists to-day in our schools.... It was planned by nature that between the years of seven and fifteen the child should have rest,—not rest which will stop all mental and physical growth, of course, ... but the child’s pace should be checked so as to allow him to recover from the strain which his system has just undergone.

“But what really happens to the child at the age of seven? Is he given this period of rest?—Verily, no! He enters the schoolroom, and becomes a victim of long hours of confinement—the first mental application, mind you, that the child has ever known. The nervous wear and tear begins; the child is fairly launched upon his enjoyment (God save the mark!) of the great educational system of America.... Special systems of ‘marks,’ which amount to prizes, are started, serving only to stimulate the preternaturally bright child, who needs relaxation most of all, and to discourage the child who happens to be below the average of intelligence. It is cramming, cramming, cramming! A certain amount of ‘ground must be gone over,’ as it is usually called. Whether the child is physically able to work the ground, does not enter into the question. And we do not stop even there! The poor children are compelled to carry home a pile of books to study, usually after supper, and just before going to bed, and that is about the most barbarous part of the whole system.”[166]

This is enough to show that the system is recognized as practicing methods not in accordance with the laws of nature, which are the laws of God. Such methods are the result of the system at the head of which stand the colleges and universities which outline the work for all below them.

Parents read these statements with wonder and a feeling of horror, but only a few realize that the primary schools and the grammar schools, and even the high schools, are responsible for the health-destroying, brain-benumbing methods employed in our public schools. The cause for the present system and methods is to be searched for in the changes which time has wrought in those simple schools planted by the freedom-seeking Puritan fathers. Say, rather, that Protestantism offered a system of Christian education which, if it had been followed, would have prevented what we find to-day.

[Sidenote: Modern reformers]

It is gratifying to find that the decline has not proceeded undisturbed. Its history has not sped on as a smooth-flowing river. From time to time men have arisen offering educational ideas in advance of the age in which they taught. Such men were Comenius and Pestalozzi, who introduced object-study in place of the time-honored memory work; and Froebel, whose patient labors for the children of the kindergarten have not only endeared him to the heart of the true teacher, but have made him a benefactor of mankind in that he aroused queries in regard to the methods of instructing the human mind. These men, searching for truth, caught glimpses of the principles of true education as taught by Christ. Disciples of these men, instead of taking from them a borrowed light, have the privilege of going again to the source of true wisdom,—“the Teacher come from God.” Here is the secret of success for educational reformers of the twentieth century.

[Sidenote: Effects of modern education]

The tide has kept up a constant ebb and flow. When the tendency was growing strong toward the classics, natural science revived, and the spirit of investigation broke the band which memory work was weaving. Science, not content with lawful fields of exploration, is now delving into metaphysics, and sending to the world a race of skeptics and infidels; or, if professed Christians, students are confirmed evolutionists, casting aside the Word of God for the theories of geology, astronomy, or biology. The narrow cramming system of memory-teaching was killing the intellectual life of the children, when nature-study was introduced. This was an improvement indeed, for these studies are thought-producing; but here the tide set in the opposite direction, and faith in a Creator is destroyed.

AS OF JERUSALEM, SO NOW OF THE CHURCHES, THEY ARE DESTROYED BECAUSE THE EDUCATION OF THE CHILDREN IS NEGLECTED. Wherein lies the safety of the Christian parent and his child? The child has a right to a Christian education. Where is it to be obtained? Can the state give it?—It could not if it would. Are the Protestant churches educating their own children? Few indeed are the Christian schools, and to-day the churches are reaping the result of their long period of retrogression. The words of Dr. James M. Buckley, editor of the _Christian Advocate_, the leading organ of Methodism, voice the general sentiment. He says in part:—

“That the Methodist Episcopal Church, with nearly three million of communicants and a vast army of Sunday-school scholars, should add less than seven thousand to its membership in 1899, is startling. That in the same period it should show a decline of 28,595 in those avowed and accepted candidates known as probationers, is ominous. Such a situation has not been frequent in our history.... No reverent person can charge the decline to God the Father Almighty, to Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, or to the Holy Ghost, in whom the church ceaselessly declares its belief. It must therefore lie at the doors of every church.”[167]

This statement is very true; and yet, while exonerating God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit from any blame in the matter, it is sad to note that prominent men in the ministry fail to see that the churches are losing their hold upon humanity because they have relinquished their right as Protestants to educate the children. The churches are to be pitied; but there is only one remedy, and that church which takes up its neglected duty in _education_ will receive the reward. To the students of prophecy it is a significant fact that this state of affairs has been growing deplorably worse since about the year 1843 or 1844.

[Sidenote: Growth of elective system]

The fluctuations which have occurred in the curricula of our leading schools has been referred to before, but is emphasized by a glance at the introduction of the elective courses. When the course of instruction became decidedly complex, requiring years for completion, and the multiplication of subjects made it impracticable for the majority of students to complete the course as outlined, there arose the privilege of option in the choice of the studies in many courses. This was also made necessary in the colleges by the organization of many technical schools throughout the land. “The early efforts to establish mechanics and manual-labor institutes are interesting as marking a reaction against the dominance of language and metaphysics, and an ingenious appeal for the large recognition of the physical sciences.” This has led in some cases to the substitution of German or some other modern language, and an increased amount of mathematics in place of the classics, the students being free to choose.

[Sidenote: Freedom of Virginia University]

This spirit of freedom, which has been almost wrenched, one might say, from many of the institutions of higher learning, is occasionally found to have swayed the hearts of earlier educators. One reads with keen relish the history of the founding of the University of Virginia, the moving spirit of which was Thomas Jefferson. The reader will be interested in a paragraph by Boone:—

“As early as 1779, while the ‘Old Dominion,’ with her sister States, was embroiled in a doubtful war; and again in 1814, after numerous defeats and constant opposition from the already-established William and Mary College, from the Protestant churches, and from most of the political leaders of the time, Mr. Jefferson and his friends sought to provide for the state, along with the general system of education, a university, in which should be taught in the highest degree, ‘every branch of knowledge, whether calculated to enrich, stimulate, and adorn the understanding, or to be useful in the arts and practical business of life.’ Five years later (1819) an act of the Assembly was obtained establishing the University of Virginia. When six years later it was opened, after a wide acquaintance and careful study of the most progressive institutions in the United States, it was found that in discipline and instruction, in constitution and means, it very materially differed from them all.”[168]

[Sidenote: Freedom from other objectionable features]

The far-reaching sight of the chief promoter of the enterprise is seen when we note wherein lay this very material difference. “There is one practice,” wrote Mr. Jefferson, “from which we shall certainly vary, although it has been copied by nearly every college and academy in the United States; that is, the holding of the students all to one prescribed course of reading, and disallowing exclusive application to those branches only which are to qualify them for the particular vocation to which they are destined. We shall, on the contrary, allow them uncontrolled choice in the lectures they shall choose to attend, and _require elementary_ qualifications only, and sufficient age.”[169]

This was a wonderful step for the time in which it occurred, and indicates the direction given to minds of men by the Spirit of God. The greater freedom occasioned by the adoption of the elective system is felt throughout the educational centers of our land. Johns Hopkins University grants the degree of B.A. in four out of six of its courses without the classics. This leads us, however, to a consideration of the question suggested several pages back, _What subjects can of right be taught in schools supported from the public funds?_

[Sidenote: Should the state support the school]

Education, pure and simple, in the breadth of its meaning, is character development. The state, as such, can not judge of motives, hence it can not educate the inner man. The two phases of the Reformation were Protestantism and republicanism; the first deals with the spiritual nature, and through this reaches the entire man, making a symmetrical character; the governmental part deals only with the mental and physical—the outward manifestations. To the church was committed the charge of the spiritual man, and the commission to “teach all nations” given to the little company that watched the ascending Lord, was repeated to the church in the sixteenth century; and with especial weight was this burden laid upon the shoulders of American men and women. The state needs men to carry forward its pursuits; and for the purely secular training of such individuals, it has a perfect right, even a duty, to provide from the common fund. A purely mechanical, secular, or business course might therefore be offered in our state schools; but with such an education few parents are contented. The moral nature needs training; in order to be good citizens, it is argued, some part of the system of ethics which is based on the doctrines of Christ must be inculcated. Christian schools, and those only, can give a spiritual education. This is the dilemma in which the educational system found itself about the time of the Revolution, and the matter, instead of reaching a satisfactory solution, has grown steadily worse. The churches failed to provide for the Christian training; and the state felt that something must be done for the children. Public schools were established; but these, by right, can not teach morality or anything pertaining thereto. But they do. Hence, the church by her failure has forced the state into the attempt to do her work,—an impossible task. Again, the churches and the denominational schools, not willing to be outdone by state institutions, have extended their stakes and lengthened their cords until they offer, not those subjects which are character building, so much as those which will enable them to compete with state institutions. Here again is a departure from Christian education, and a mixture which would be hard to designate as other than papal.

[Sidenote: Degrees a papal mark]

Again, the state sets its seal upon work done in institutions which it supports, and the Christian schools—those in name at least—not only accept public money, but allow the state to put its seal to their work in the granting of literary degrees and diplomas. This is a natural result of the union of worldly education and the principles of Christian education which we have followed through two centuries, and yet to-day there is scarcely a school claiming to be Christian in its principles that dare raise its voice against the customs of its sister institutions.

[Sidenote: Education and state unite; result, papal]

“Render, therefore, unto Cæsar the things that be Cæsar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s,” would be repeated, should the author of those words enter in person the institutions of learning which claim to bear his name. A union of church and state is described as the papacy; a union of education (the foundation of the church) and the state is passed by with scarcely a dissenting voice.

[Sidenote: Educational work of Catholics]

So far in this chapter, the educational work of the Catholic Church in the United States has been passed without a word;—not because that organization has been less active here than in European countries, but because the idea is so prevalent that a system of education to be papal must emanate from the Roman Church. Ideas to the contrary have been emphasized again and again in these pages. In our own country we can not fail to see that, aside from the work of the Catholic Church, there has been developed a papal system of instruction. The stepping-stones from the present back into the dim ages of the past, when Egypt or Greece swayed the world through science or philosophy, may in places be hidden; but the products of Greek philosophy and Egyptian wisdom, seasoned with the ideas of the medieval scholasticism, or the more subtle mixture of modern Christian education and the papal system as exemplified by Sturm, to which is attached the State’s seal of approval, meet us from season to season as our schools send forth their graduates.

[Sidenote: Catholic schools]

The Catholics, however, have not watched the growth of our educational system without putting forth a vigorous effort. From Colonial days, when the Jesuits flocked to these shores, and taught the established schools and missions, to the present time, when the new university for the education of Catholic youth is in full operation at our national capital, this organization has spared no effort. As Boone says, “All other denominational service in education is partial and irregular compared with the comprehensive grasp of the Catholic Church. Their aim is all-inclusive, and assumes no other agency. Ignoring the public school, their plan is co-extensive with their membership. With one fifth of all the theological seminaries, and one third of all their students; with one fourth of the colleges, nearly six hundred academies, and two thousand six hundred parochial schools (elementary), instructing more than half a million children, the church is seen to be a force which, educationally considered, is equaled by no other single agency but the government itself.”[170]

The system by which this work is carried forward is thus described: “The twelve Catholic provinces ... are subdivided into seventy-nine dioceses. The latter average from thirty-five to forty parishes, each of which is supposed to have a school for the elementary training of their children. As a matter of fact, _ninety-three per cent_ of them maintain parochial schools, in which are educated, generally by the priesthood, ... the 511,063 pupils. In addition to these are five hundred and eighty-eight academies, usually for the girls, and ninety-one colleges.” This was written six or seven years ago, but the figures speak for themselves. With the nation honeycombed by schools which have as their avowed object the annihilation of Protestantism and republicanism; with our own public-school system, so grand in many respects, _yet compromising until it is indeed papal_, it is not strange that Methodist and Presbyterian congregations are bemoaning their dwindling numbers.

Should Protestants educate their own children? History speaks in emphatic language, Yes! The papacy says, If you wish us to have your children, No!

“God stands at the door and knocks; blessed are we if we open to him.”—_Luther._

XVI

CHRISTIAN EDUCATION

After watching the educational struggle which has gone on for ages between truth and error, and observing that scarcely a century has passed which has not witnessed a controversy more or less severe between Christian and papal methods of instruction, one is prepared to believe that this is a subject inseparably connected with the history of nations. This being true, we must expect to find ourselves in the midst of the controversy to-day. It needs but a casual glance at current history to confirm this fact; for minds are troubled because of existing evils, and hearts are open for educational truth.

If we are inclined to think that the principles of Christian education are new and before unheard of, we have but to catch the thoughts which have swayed true educators from the time of Christ to the present day to know that the same spirit has been at work in all ages to draw the hearts of men to God.

[Sidenote: Christian education exemplified by Christ]

The advent of Christ was a wonderful event. “The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.” That man might behold the workings of God in human flesh, and see here the manifestation of truth, Christ was born. His was pre-eminently a work of education, and His system was _Christian education_. By this means, Heaven again reached earth, and clasped it to her bosom. Men, in their shortsightedness, were unable to comprehend the spiritual teachings of the Son of God, and often His most powerful lessons fell unappreciated on the ears of the multitudes, and even on the ears of the apostles.

[Sidenote: The Holy Spirit the teacher]

Much as the life of Christ has done for the world, there has never been a man, or a nation of men, who have fully followed his teachings. Error has ever been mixed with truth, and the educators of the world have failed to see the realization of their hopes because of this partial grasp of truth.