Modern Education and Some of Its Perils
By C. A. Blanchard
EDUCATION is the great interest and duty of every age. Men become what they are chiefly by reason of the education which they receive. A babe born in the home of a savage, but reared in the home of a Christian, will usually be civilized, and probably be a child of God. A babe born in a Christian home, and reared in the home of a savage, will certainly be a savage, and if ever civilized or Christianized, will become so by the action of educating forces. Poland was once almost entirely Protestant. The Jesuits obtained possession of the schools. They became managers of the education of the Polish youth. The result was that the Protestant movement was at first checked, and then destroyed, and that for two hundred years Poland has been as Catholic a country as there is in the world. There are some things which may be done and finished, but education will never be done and finished until the last child is born and reared. The world must be made new with every generation, and as long as human life may be made or marred, there will be a best way to train the young, and there will be a danger that society will fail of finding or walking in this best way. The question suggested to me is this: “What are the perils of modern education?” All will expect me to answer, “Commercialism.” There is no doubt that this is one of our great dangers. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. It will profit a man nothing, should he gain the whole world, or any portion of it, if he lose his own soul. Yet, education in our time is very largely devoted to the subject of money making. Men are fairly crazed. The old wish to get it to keep; the young wish to get it to spend. Now, there is no question that, so long as we are in this world, we shall need things. It is equally certain that if we “seek first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,” we shall get them. For this we have the word of God. But for the schools of a great nation, from the primary grades to the State universities, to be teaching twenty millions of children, young men and women, five days in the week through ten or fifteen years, that the great end of life is to get money, that for this they should study and plan and work, is to corrupt the very brain and heart of the nation. The rage for pleasure in our day takes on a peculiar and a peculiarly dangerous character. Boys and girls of fifty and one hundred years ago were trained to labor. From the time when they could go about, they had a share, and an honorable share, in the work of the homes where they were reared. The girls swept, and dusted, washed, wiped, ironed, and mended; the boys sawed, split, carried in, carried out, harnessed horses, ran errands, cleaned sidewalks, and became valuable members of the community. When work was done, there were sports, simple, inexpensive, healthful, helpful. One need not stop to ask the reason for the change; but notice how tremendous the change is! Hundreds of thousands of girls are raised to young womanhood who have never done a useful thing in their lives. Mothers and servants have waited on them, dressed them, fed them, and, in addition, have provided them with money that they might have “fun,” as they call it. And these idle, worthless girls are matched to equally idle, worthless, and more dangerous boys and young men—lads who have never earned a day’s food, who are clothed, fed, housed, cared for, and who then must be furnished with money for “fun,” and this not the simple, inexpensive, healthful, helpful sport of their fathers and grandfathers, but expensive, morally dangerous, physically dangerous, injurious amusements, the amusements which take boys who are not qualified to take care of themselves, on long journeys away from home, subject them to the overstrain of exciting contest, and, above all, to the temptation to lie and cheat in order to win. No intelligent person who studies our educational system at the present time can doubt that the fraternity movement is another of the perils of modern education. Boys like to be men. They like to become men as quickly as possible; and, unfortunately, it seems more natural for them to imitate the defects and vices than the sterling qualities of those whom they admire. Among the illustrations of this general truth is the rage for secret organization which has recently taken possession of our country from ocean to ocean. Boards of education in cities have been compelled to take action. Superintendents of schools and principals of high schools, as well as high school teachers, almost without exception declare that these fraternities are seriously injuring the young people of the schools where they are found. In multitudes of our colleges secret societies are permitted to do, without let or hindrance, what the boards of education and the faculties of high schools are seeking to prevent. The same snobbery, the same petty persecutions, the same tendencies toward smoking, drinking, gambling, and licentiousness, which have caused the high schools to reject the fraternity, are clearly evidenced in the fraternity life of the colleges. Yet the governing boards of the latter seem to be ignorant, unable or unwilling to do the thing which the situation requires. Of course, some fraternities are worse than others, and the same fraternity in one college may be more objectionable than it is in another. But, as Dr. Crosby, chancellor of New York University, said, “Out of darkness dark deeds grow.” Wendell Phillips said, “Secret societies are needful for no good purpose, and may be used for any bad purpose whatever.” Washington, in his farewell address, cautioned the American nation against “self-constituted societies, which interfere with the general administration,” and are therefore hindrances both to those who participate in them and to others. The number of deaths which have already been caused by these fraternities no one but God knows. Three men, at least, have been killed in initiation at Cornell University; one was brought to the very gates of death at Harvard; one at least has been killed at Yale within the last few years. Broken legs and arms, bruises and injuries to the brain, are not catalogued. Parents send a boy away to college, healthy, happy, ambitious, strong. They receive him back sometimes a mental wreck, sometimes a physical wreck, sometimes a corpse. It is strange that such an institution should be tolerated for an hour. The Use of Tobacco and Liquor
Another of the perils of modern education is in the temptation to the use of narcotics and alcoholic stimulants. Medical science has definitely pronounced upon both these poisons. It has been proved that neither of them13is consistent with the highest physical well-being of men. If the use of tobacco and alcohol injures the bodies of men, of course the intellectual and moral natures must also suffer. That they do, no one can doubt, and that the injury is the greater when the use of alcoholic and narcotic stimulants is begun in youth, is also unquestionable. Associated with the craze for sport and the use of stimulants are the awful vices of gambling and licentiousness. The latter is undoubtedly the most widespread evil of our time, and is one of the greatest of all perils to which the young people of our schools are exposed. Gambling among students is often begun by betting on the contests in which the college or university is engaged. When once the appetite for the hazard of cards, dice, or contests is established, the victim is ruined, unless God shall interfere. The gambler will sacrifice reputation, property, the interests of his family, everything, to gratify his passion. Licentiousness is stimulated by the dances which are held by the fraternities, and the custom of wine drinking, joined with the dancing, makes the ruin of thousands sure. It is not fashionable in these times even to speak of these evils, far less to provide efficiently against them. It is easier to let the young people drift, to let those who are to be destroyed be destroyed, and to teach the rest. But this is not the method of Jesus Christ, and ought not to be the method of a school which bears his name. A Christian college should, by precept and by the example of its professors and teachers, show the young men and women that the use of tobacco and intoxicating liquors is unnecessary and injurious. I once saw on the bulletin-board of a university, side by side, the announcement of a missionary meeting, the notice of a dance given by one of the classes, and the notice of a smoker given by the faculty. Such a combination unsettles all moral ideas, and leaves the pupil helpless so far as the guidance of his institution is concerned. We may sum up the whole matter in a few words. To “fear God and keep his commandments” is the “whole duty of man.” No man has ever done this or ever will do it, except as he is saved and kept by Jesus Christ. The college, therefore, should conduct men to him. This should be the thing for which it labors, teaches, prays, and works. The Christian men and women should sustain the institutions which accept this responsibility. They should not patronize with their money—most of all, they should not patronize with their sons and daughters—the institutions which are not willing to accept such responsibility. It is the duty of the Christian school to sustain the Christian home. Schools which are not willing to do this ought not to be called Christian, and Christian people should leave them to be sustained, both as to patronage and gifts, by those who do not care for the souls of men.—C. A. Blanchard, President of Wheaton College.