[CHAPTER XXV.
The Socialist System of Education.]
The late member of the German diet, Dr. Lasker, delivered a lecture in Berlin, during the seventies, in which he arrived at the conclusion that it is possible for all members of society to have an equal standard of education. But Dr. Lasker was an anti-Socialist, a rigid upholder of private property and capitalism, and the question of education under present-day conditions is pre-eminently a question of money. Therefore an equal standard of education for all is impossible at present. Some may attain a higher education even under unfavorable circumstances, by overcoming many difficulties and by applying an amount of energy that few possess. But the masses can never attain it so long as they must live in a state of social dependence and oppression.[256]
In the new society the conditions of existence will be the same for all. The requirements and inclinations will differ and will always continue to differ, since these differences are rooted in the nature of man. But each individual will be able to develop under conditions equally favorable to all. The uniform equality, imputed to Socialism, is like so many other imputations, sheer nonsense. It would be useless, indeed, if Socialism should strive for uniform equality, for it would then come into conflict with human nature itself and could not hope to see society develop in accordance with its principles.[257] Indeed, if Socialism should succeed in forcing society into unnatural conditions, these new conditions would soon make themselves felt as shackles that would be torn asunder, and Socialism would be doomed. Society develops by innate laws and acts accordingly.[258]
A proper education of the young must be one of the chief tasks of the new society. Every child that is born will be a welcome addition to society. In the child society beholds the possibility of its own continuity, its own further development. Therefore it will also recognize the duty of amply providing for the new being. The first object of its care must, accordingly, be the child-bearing woman, the mother. Comfortable homes, pleasant environment, institutions of all kinds suited to this stage of motherhood, considerate care for her and for the child—these are the first requirements. It is self-understood that women will be enabled to nurse their children as long as necessary and desirable. Moleschott, Sonderegger, all hygienists and physicians are agreed that no other nourishment can fully substitute the mother’s milk. Those who, like Eugen Richter, grow indignant at the suggestion that young mothers shall give birth to their children in a lying-in-hospital, where they will be surrounded by every care and comfort that only wealthy persons can afford to-day, and that even they cannot obtain as perfectly as it can be provided in institutions especially equipped for the purpose, should remember that at present at least four-fifths of all children who come into the world are born under the most primitive conditions that mock civilization. Of the remaining one-fifth of our mothers again only a small minority are able to enjoy the care and the comforts that should be bestowed upon every woman in this condition. Even to-day some cities have splendid provisions for child-bearing women, and many women gladly make use of these institutions when they feel their time approaching. But these institutions are so expensive that only few women are able to make use of them; others, of course, are prevented by prejudice. Here again we have an example how the bourgeois world everywhere contains the germs for future transformation.
Motherhood among women of wealth and fashion becomes rather peculiar by the fact that these mothers transfer their maternal duties as soon as possible to a proletarian wet-nurse. It is well known that the Lausitz (Spreewald) is the region that supplies the bourgeois women of Berlin, who do not or cannot nurse their infants, with nurses. “The breeding of nurses” is carried on as a trade, since country girls do not hesitate to become pregnant, because they find it profitable, after the birth of their babies, to hire out as nurses to rich families in Berlin. It is not an unusual occurrence that girls have three or four illegitimate children in order to hire out as nurses, and if they earn enough money by this trade they are regarded as desirable wives by the young men of the Spreewald. Regarded from the view-point of bourgeois morality, such actions are despicable; but regarded from the view-point of the family interests of the bourgeoisie, they become praiseworthy and desirable.
As soon as the child will have outgrown infancy it will join companions of its age in common play under common care and direction. Everything needful or desirable for the child’s physical and mental development will be supplied. Every observer of children knows that they can be most easily educated in the company of other children. This quality can be successfully applied to the system of education.[259] The play-halls and the kindergarten will be succeeded by a playful introduction into the rudiments of knowledge and the various industrial tasks. They will be succeeded by appropriate mental and physical work, combined with gymnastic exercises and unrestricted motion on the playground and in the gymnasium, the skating-rink and the swimming-pool. There will be exercises, drills and wrestling-matches for both sexes, for the aim will be to bring up a healthy, hardy race that will be normal both physically and mentally. Step by step the children will be initiated into the various practical activities, horticulture, agriculture, manufacture, the technics of the process of production. Mental education in the various realms of knowledge will not be neglected.
The system of education will be purified and improved, just like the system of production. Many antiquated, superfluous methods and subjects, which only serve to hamper the child’s mental and physical development, will be dropped. The knowledge of natural things, adapted to the child’s understanding, will incite a far greater desire for study than a system of education where one subject conflicts with and contradicts another; for instance, when, on the one hand, children receive religious instruction as taught by the Bible, and, on the other, are taught science and natural history. The equipment of the schools and the methods and means of education will be in keeping with the advanced stage of civilization of the new society. All the books and objects required for education and study, food and clothing, will be furnished by society; no pupil will be at a disadvantage with the others.[260] This is another chapter that causes indignation among our bourgeois “men of order.”[261] They claim that Socialists seek to turn the school into barracks, and to deprive the parents of all influence over their children. Socialists do not aim at anything of the sort. In future society, parents will have far more time at their disposal than the great majority of parents have to-day. We need but point to the fact that at present many workingmen are employed ten hours daily, and even longer, and that many employees in the postal and railroad service, prison and police officials, etc., as well as mechanics, small farmers, merchants, military men, physicians, etc., must devote an equal length of time to their occupations. In future parents will be able to devote themselves to their children in a measure that is quite impossible to-day. Moreover, the parents will control the educational system and will determine the measures and methods that are to be adopted and introduced. For then society will be thoroughly democratic. There will be boards of education consisting of parents—men and women—and of the educators. Does anyone presume that these will act contrary to their sentiments and interests? That is done in present-day society, where the state carries out its ideas of education contrary to the wishes of most parents.
Our opponents pretend that it is one of the most agreeable things to parents to have their children about them all day and to be constantly occupied with their education. As a matter of fact, this is not so. Every parent knows that the education of a child is no easy task. Several children facilitate education, but they cause so much work and worry, especially to the mother, that she is thankful when they are old enough to attend school, and she is relieved of their care for a part of the day. Moreover, most parents can educate their children but insufficiently, because they have no time. The fathers are engaged in their trades or professions and the mothers in their household tasks, and sometimes the mothers are breadwinners, also. But even those parents who have sufficient time usually lack the ability. How many parents are able to follow up the mental development of their children at school and to assist them? Mighty few. The mother, who, in most cases, might be best enabled to render such assistance, rarely has the ability, because she has not been properly trained herself. Moreover, the methods and subjects are changed so often that they are foreign to most parents. For most children the facilities at home are so insufficient that they have no proper order, comfort or peace for doing their home-work, nor are they helped by anyone. Often the home is small and overcrowded; the entire family are huddled together in a few small rooms, the furniture is scanty, and the child wishing to study lacks every comfort and convenience. Not infrequently light, air and heat are wanting. The books and school supplies are either wanting entirely or are of the poorest quality. Frequently also the little ones are tortured by hunger, which destroys all inclination for study. Hundreds of thousands of children are put to work at all kinds of domestic and industrial occupations that rob their childhood of its joy and incapacitate them for mental work. Sometimes children must contend with the opposition of narrow-minded parents, who object to it that the children devote time to their studies or to play. In short, there are so many obstacles that it is to be wondered at that the young are so well educated. This is a proof of the health of human nature and of its innate desire for progress and perfection.
Bourgeois society itself recognizes a number of these evils and facilitates the education of the young by introducing free public instruction and, here and there, by also furnishing the school supplies. As late as the middle of the eighties the then Minister of Education of Saxony, designated both these institutions as “Socialistic demands.” In France, where public education had long been neglected and then progressed all the more rapidly, progress has advanced still further; at least, this is the case in Paris. Here the public-school meal, at the expense of the municipality, has been introduced. Poor children are given the meals free of charge, and the children of parents who are in better circumstances must pay a nominal sum into the municipal treasury. Here we behold a communistic institution that has proved entirely satisfactory to parents and children.