Where and How Educated.—The Public Schools
By W. S. Sadler
DEMORALIZATION OF THE YOUNG MAN. No. 5.
Where and How Educated.—The Public Schools.
SOON the boy reaches the age when it is expected that he will start to school. While it is true that we have a most wonderful school system in this country, it can not be denied that there exists to-day in the public schools of this fair land an ulcer which is eating at the very life—morality—of the American youth. You have only to investigate, if you are skeptical, to be convinced that this is a fact. Were the true conditions generally known concerning the prevalence of vice, and its spread in connection with our public schools, the reader would be appalled. While the mind of the boy is being stored with facts and book learning, his young soul is being filled with vicious knowledge and information of the most pernicious sort. Seeds of vice are sown in the breast of the lad at this tender age, afterwards to germinate and bring forth a terrible harvest. Let the parent who would seek to forestall the enemy's plans for the ruin of his boy, not only look well into the lad's associations, but make careful inquiry concerning the school of immorality which is so often carried on contemporaneously with his training in the public school. Bad Literature in Schools.
The emissary of Satan does not hesitate to enter both schools and colleges. He often comes in the person of one of the students. In this way whole schools and colleges have been thoroughly saturated with literature of the vilest sort. Again, there are those who are professionals at this work, those who make the pollution and destruction of youth their source of gaining a livelihood. Nowhere to-day are the youth safe from the enemy's assaults. Only by fortifying their minds with the eternal principles of purity, righteousness, and truth can they be saved from the fiery darts of the enemy. Many will no doubt say, Why are not these things suppressed? Why does not the law act? Strenuous efforts have been put forth along this line by those interested in the suppression of vice; but they are merely treating symptoms—effects, instead of causes. Has not the time arrived when we should begin to look back into the cause of these evils which are effecting the ruin of so many youth? Shall we not seek to prevent, rather than suppress? Remove the cause, and we shall see fruits from our labor. Give the boy the Bible, together with plenty of good books, varied in their scope and subject matter, and in so doing you will set in operation influences of the greatest preventive value. Detective Stories, Fiction, Dime Novels, etc.
"By beholding we become changed." The young mind that is allowed to feed upon the exciting incidents and the unnatural imaginations of so-called "detective stories," "Indian fighting," and other similar episodes, found in the cheap books, pamphlets, and periodicals of the day, is sure to become seriously diseased. The young imagination will become so excited and distorted as to cause the lad to fall an easy victim to a desire for adventure and excitement, which is but a natural consequence of this sort of brain food. Recently, in this city, a lad of twelve years organized what he was pleased to call a "gang of robbers," and, with revolvers and other necessary paraphernalia, set out one night to hold up pedestrians and commit various other depredations. His arrest by the police disclosed the fact that he had been reading the very kind of literature above mentioned. This is not an isolated case. If the mind of a youth is once poisoned with this pernicious reading matter, it will require years to counteract the evil done. Fiction, whether cheap or costly, whether bound with a yellow paper cover or bound in leather, portraying an unreal life, is certainly not desirable brain food out of which to build up great minds, noble purposes, and exemplary characters. The Chicago Tribune of Feb. 20, 1900, in an editorial devoted to the question of "Novels in the Public Library," makes the statement that seventy-five per cent. of the books drawn out of public city libraries is novels. This virtually means that seventy-five per cent. of the material consumed as brain food for the rising generation is composed of fiction. As to the result of this abnormal popularity of novels we leave the reader to judge. The cheap dime novels—and, for that matter, a higher price would make them no better—are surely contributing their share to the evil influences which are conspiring together for the demoralization of American young men. "Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy." Eze. 16:49. No doubt there were to be seen in wicked Sodom many things of a highly demoralizing character, but these the prophet does not mention. "Abundance of idleness" is pointed out by the pen of inspiration as one of the first great influences directly responsible for the presence of vice and iniquity in Sodom of old. Idleness, physical, mental, and moral, is no less responsible for the ravages of vice and intemperance at the present day. "Satan still finds work for idle hands to do." What is needed now is not so much gymnasiums and other apparatus designed for indoor exercise, but wholesome occupations, whether indoor or outdoor, that shall give to both mind and body abundant opportunity for healthy application and exertion. In brief, the young man of to-day should work. The indolence and inactivity resulting from the creation of a social aristocracy is one of the blighting curses of the present day. The training and education that leads a young man (and young woman as well) to shun the tasks of honest toil, is one of the curses of modern social life. Inactivity of mind or body on the part of the youth, is one of the most powerful weapons which the enemy of truth and righteousness has ever wielded in his warfare against purity and virtue. That energy of mind and body which should have been consumed in active mental and physical exercise—exercise which would have strengthened the body, invigorated the mind, and ennobled the character—is, by the devil's deceptive delusion of idleness, converted into an energy whose well-springs are from beneath, and whose power for the accomplishment of evil seems almost unlimited. To the idler, the result is dissipation, disease, and decay. Physical exercise and mental exertion are among the most powerful and effective weapons against impurity, vice, and intemperance with which the young man of to-day may arm himself. It matters little to what class of society he may belong, whether he is rich or poor, there is one thing we would highly recommend for every young man, and that is work, real work, work that is real enough to induce perspiration each day. The Creator made no mistake when, in view of man's fallen condition, He gave this all-wise prescription, "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread." If some of the poisons manufactured in the human body could be eliminated by the sweat glands, a smaller quantity would be forced into the circulation, and thence on its mission of mischief-making—irritating the nerves and poisoning the mind. Let none make the mistake of construing what has been said above concerning physical work into meaning that the constitution of a young lad is to be loaded with work till it is injured. Besides injuring him physically, overwork would in all probability dishearten his ambitious mind. Provide him with steady employment that will tire him out with the approach of night, and which will make sleep, "nature's sweet restorer," both acceptable and refreshing. W. S. SADLER.