Public School Education

by Michael Müller

If it is in vain to say, "Let the Bible be read in our Public Schools," or "let our children receive religious instruction from their parents, or in Sunday-schools, in order to arrest the fast-spreading crimes of the land," it is still more in vain to say, "Let the Legislature be called upon."

It cannot be denied that the higher culture of America has, from the time of the introduction of the present Public School system, ceased to be Christian. What is the natural harvest of this sowing? It is that we have already a generation of men, thousands of whom are not fit to be the heads and fathers of families. But this is not all; we have also ever so many guides of public opinion, ever so many ministers of public affairs, and ever so many lawgivers of the United States, who are infidels and profligates; who see only themselves in all they do, who desire only to fret out their little hour on the political stage with a sharp eye to their own interests, without the smallest desire to secure the Republic against future disasters—who cannot, or will not, see the disastrous storms the ship of the Republic will soon have to encounter. What good, then, could be expected from calling upon the Legislature? It would only show its impotency, or, what is more, its own corruption. The executive is unable, suspected, or often found in the "ring," or, to use a common expression, "Justice stinks." The judiciary, by its very nature, always timid, and too often time-serving, can do nothing. Well, then, the press: what shall be said of it? Only this: that it would be unreasonable to expect it to possess the supernatural powers of healing such a multitude of foul lepers, or to be able at any time to lift itself far above the level of the general average of the age and country.

What, then, must be done to save society from the perils that menace it—to stem the tide that bids fair to sweep away, eventually, even civilization itself? We must proceed on a true principle. When we proceed on a true principle, the more logically and completely we carry it out the better; but when we start with a false principle, the more logical we are, and the farther we push it, the worse. Our consistency increases, instead of diminishing, the evils we would cure. The reformers started wrong. They would reform the Church by placing her under human control. Their successors have in each generation found they did not go far enough, and have, each in its turn, struggled to push it farther and farther, till they find themselves without any church life, without faith, without religion, and beginning to doubt if there be even a God. So, in the question of education, the upholders of the Public School system have pushed the false principle "that all individual, domestic, social, and political evils are due to ignorance, and can only be prevented by high intellectual culture," till they have nearly taught away all religious belief and morality, have well-nigh abolished the family which is the social unit, and find that the evils they pretended to prevent, and the wrongs they sought to redress, are fast increasing.

We must, then, proceed on a true principle in trying to remedy the profligacy that disgraces so many of our crowded centres, and the demoralization that is fast gangrening even our rural districts.

One thousand eight hundred and forty-odd years ago, you might have observed a poor, meanly-clad wanderer, wending his steps on the Appian way to the Capitol of the world,—the wealthy, magnificent, and ungodly city of Rome. He has passed its gates, and threads his way unobserved through its populous streets. On every side he beholds gorgeous palaces raised at the expense of downtrodden nationalities; stately temples dedicated to as many false gods as nations were congregated in Rome; public baths and amphitheatres devoted to pleasure and to cruelty; statues, monuments, and triumphal arches raised to the memory of blood-thirsty tyrants. He passes warriors and senators, beggars and cripples, effeminate and dissolute women, gladiators and slaves, merchants and statesmen, orators and philosophers;—all classes, all ranks, all conditions of men of every language and color under the sun. Everywhere he sees a maddening race for pleasure; everywhere the impress of luxury, everywhere the full growth of crime, side by side with indescribable suffering, diabolical cruelty and barbarity. And this poor, meanly-clad wanderer was St. Peter. Oh! how the noble heart of the fisherman of Galilee must have bled, when he observed the empire of Satan so supreme—when he witnessed the shocking licentiousness of the temple and the homestead; when he saw the fearful degradation of woman groaning under the load of her own infamy; when he saw the heart-rending inhumanity which slew the innocent babes and threw them into the Tiber; when he saw how prisoners of war, slaves, and soldiers were trained for bloody fights, and entered the arena of the amphitheatre, and strove whole days to strangle one another, for the special entertainment of the Roman people. When Peter came to Rome, that city was the condensation of all the idolatry, all the oppression, all the injustice, all the immoralities of the world; for the world was centred in Rome.

Here, then, were evils to be remedied similar to those of our day and country. Pagan philosophers, poets and orators, had tried their best to cure these evils and to elevate mankind, but they had tried in vain. What they were unable to bring about, St. Peter accomplished by preaching to the Roman people Christianity—the religion of Jesus Christ—which imparts to the mind infallibly the light of truth, and lays down for the will authoritatively the unchangeable principles of supernatural morality, true prosperity, true happiness, and peace on earth and for eternity. Indeed, it is a well-known fact that the Capitoline temple, and with it the many shrines of idolatry, the golden house of Nero, and with it Roman excess and Roman cruelty, the throne of the Cæsars, and with it Roman oppression and Roman injustice, gave way and disappeared in proportion as the light of Christianity was infused into that foul mass, into that rotten society, centred in Rome. It was this Christian religion that changed a sinful people into saints, and so many holy inhabitants of heaven. And what the blessings of the religion of Christ brought about in Rome, they bring about wherever they are diffused. Hence all true lovers of the country tell us that there is but one remedy for the cure of the diabolical spirit and the crimes of our country—it is to teach our children the truth and blessings of the Christian religion. It is the Christian religion that infallibly and authoritatively teaches the duties of civil authorities towards their subjects, of husbands towards their wives, of parents towards their children, of masters towards their servants, of pastors towards their flocks, of the faithful towards their pastors, of servants towards their masters, of wives towards their husbands, of children towards their parents, of subjects towards their lawfully constituted civil authorities, of all men towards God, their Supreme Master, and just Rewarder of good and evil. Moreover, it is the Christian religion alone that affords men the means to obtain God's grace, which enlightens the mind to see the beauty of virtue, inflames the heart with love for it, and inclines the will to practise it with perseverance. If we then wish to be sure of having a virtuous and virile people, we must Christianize our youth, especially during their school hours; we must bring up our children in a religious atmosphere. I have already remarked that religion may be compared to leaven. As leaven must be diffused throughout the entire mass in order to produce its effects, so the Christian religion must be thoroughly diffused throughout the child's entire education, in order to be solid and effective.

Not a moment of the hours of school should be left without religious influence. It is the constant breathing of the air that preserves our bodily life, and it is the constant dwelling in a religious atmosphere that preserves the life of the youthful soul. Religion is not a study, or an exercise that may be restricted to a certain place, or a certain hour. It is a faith and a law which ought to be felt everywhere, and which in this manner alone can exercise all its beneficent influence upon our minds and lives. It will never do to suffer the child to devote six days in the week to worldly science, and to depend on Sunday for a religious training. This would be like reserving the salt which should season our food during the week, and taking it all in a dose on Sunday. By such a system we may make expert shop-boys, first-rate accountants, shrewd and thriving "earth-worms"; but it would be presumption to think of thus making good citizens, still less virtuous Christians.

Let us be assured that our young men know their duties to God, to their neighbors, and to themselves, and they will then, but not till then, be true Christians. In being true Christians they will be dutiful sons, faithful husbands, affectionate fathers, gentle masters, honest servants, law-loving and law-abiding citizens, true statesmen, good soldiers, and valiant defenders of the country, chaste and sober companions, the joy of God and of society.

But, above all, let us be assured that our daughters are educated as women, not as men. Women are not needed as men; they are needed as women: to do, not what men can do as well as they, but what men cannot do. Woman was created to be a wife and a mother; that is her destiny. To that destiny all her instincts point, and for it nature has specially qualified her. Her proper sphere is home, and her proper function is the care of the household, to manage a family, to take care of children, and attend to their early training. For this she is endowed with patience, endurance, passive courage, quick sensibilities, a sympathetic nature, and great executive and administrative ability. She was born to be a queen in her own household, and make home cheerful, bright, and happy. There it is that she is really great, noble, almost divine.

Now the general complaint is that the greater part of our Public School-girls are not fit to be good wives, mothers and housekeepers. As wives, they forget what they owe to their husbands, are capricious and vain, often light and frivolous, extravagant and foolish, bent on having their own way, though ruinous to the family, and generally contriving, by coaxings, blandishments, or poutings, to get it. They hold obedience in horror, and seek only to govern their husbands and all around them.