New Britain Herald Newspaper, July 30, 1926, Page 23

Is HOME LIFE being SWEPT AWAY ? Here Is an Interview With the United States Commissioner of Education, DR. JOHN ]. TIGERT, in Which He Tells Why the Social Revolution Now in Progress Is a Challenge That Must Be Met by the Parents and Teachers of America By John H. McNeely IS THE old-fashioned home a thing of the past? Has the : time gone, and gone forever, when the American family sits down together at mealtimes and the absence of any one is felt keenly; when in the evening the father, mother and children‘ gather around the fireside, where much old-fashioned dogma is dispensed; and when the children are generally anchored in the security of parental influence? Dr. John J. Tigert, Commissioner of the United States Bureau of Education of the Interior Department, answers ?hese questions with a decided affirmative. He says that today in the. average American home it is seldom that a family of any size is found seated simultaneously either at the table or in the evening by the fireside. He says that the glory of the great white way, the lights of the cafe, the motion picture, the lure of the gasoline-driven motor vehicle and the speed of modern living have conspired to disrupt the old-fashioned American home, “A revolution has occurred in the United States during the last decade,” declares Dr. Tigert. “It has not been a revolu- tion by force of arms and bloodshed, but a riot of evolution, which has shaken violently the fundamental institutions of society, created social discontent, inspired a disregard of the rights of others, unbridled vice and a growing disrespect for law never before characterizing our country. «IMHE old-fashioned home has been swept away in this avalanche. Children have lost in a large degree the moral instruction formerly given by their parents at these family gatherings by the. fireside and around the dinner table. These opportunities for character- building no longer exist. 'An American satirist recently insinuated that parents nowadays only teach their children to walk and talk, leaving the remaining task of rearing their offspring to the teachers of the public schools. “I do not believe this to be true, but with the disappearance of the old-fash- joned home there is no doubt that there has been a serious breakdown in char- acter and integrity. The public schools must meet this issue. Moral and char- acter education in the future must be- come a fundamental purpose in the scheme of the schools. It must becoms a part of the regular curriculum. The principles of virtue, honesty, loyalty to duty and obedience to law must be in- stilled in our modern children through the public schools if it is to be no longer done effectively in the home. “Sharp instruments are needed for surgical operations,” Dr. Tigert econ- tinued, “but it is far more vital that the instruments be sterilized. Dul] instru- ments that are clean are less dangerous than sharp instruments that are foul The man who first learned that lnstru: ments should be sharp made an impor tant discovery. But the man who founé that instruments should at the game time be sterilized made a far more im portant discovery. If I had to he 3 erated upon, I would prefer a duj kn.‘f" that was clean to a sharp knife thay w‘ s dirty. The former would do ljtt]e 3 no damage. The latter would carry g;r nocuous germs 8o far into the bod: = to destroy life. 7 a8 IMHE same situation exists gard to the education of thew’ Aflxlnerr.i. can children of today. To enlighten th; minds means nothing without the proper direction of morals, without imtrucgnn in cleanliness in living and without character. Soclety needs enlightenment but it needs virtue also. An edumué criminal is more dangerous than an {gnorant one. Knowledge and character must go hand in hand, if we are to com- bat the acute social changes through which this country is now passing.” Dr. Tigert’s solution of the problem is not a return to the iron discipline of the schoolroom of some generations ago, when “reading, ’riting and ’rithmetic were taught to the tune of the hickory stick.” Nor does he want the schovlroom to revert to the still older generations so faithfully pictured by Charles Dickens in “David Copperfield.” “But the pendulum has swung too far in the other direction;” Dr. Tigert goes on. “As a result of the social revolution that has swept the United States, chil- dren have obtained so much freedom that it is confused in their minds with licensa. “Of course, any moral instruction in the school will require the re-enforce- ment of religious teaching and feeling. We have wisely separated the functions of church and state, but, in avoiding the Scylla of political interference with re- liglon, we have steered upon the Charyb- dis of state education without religion. In private, parochial and church schools !’eligicn can be given with secular teach- inge, but cannot be given in publicly supported schools. “It is doubtful, therefore, if religious instruction can actually be introduced in the public schools without interfer- ence with religious freedom. We can, however, find a way to teach character effectively in them, and this seems to be the crying need of our present day and generation. In order to accomplish this purpose the Church should become a supplement to the school. “There are various plans now in effect whereby children are dismissed from the school for religious instruc- tion in the church of their choice, such as are in use in Gary, Ind.; Toledo, 0., and other places. “In both these cities a system has been worked out in which the school becomes the community center surrounded by churches of all denominations. The chil- dren step out of the school into the church. Some State universities are also planning an arrangement similar in nature. “In the public schools of Elgin, Ill., a regular course of character education has already been inaugurated. The an- nual’ report of the superintendent ex- plains that its purpose is to assume phases of child training neglected in the home. Better manhood and better wom- anhood is the slogan of the new cur- riculum. “A brief outline of the plan shows that it provides for classroom instruction in morals each Monday; manners each Tues- day; respect for property on Wednes- day; safety on Thursday, and thrift and patriotism on Friday. Other subjects taught the children are honesty, gentle- ness, faith, self-control, industry, loyalty, honor, duty, humility, politeness and other attributes of integrity and char- acter. «MMHE Character Education Institu- tion, aroused by the prevailing need of character instruction to youth, has done a great deal to stimulate research in this field of character training. Moral instruction has been tried on a large scale in France, and reports are that re- sults are gratifying. From the experi- ence already gained little doubt exists o = Dr. John J. Tigert, in the oval, urges the teaching of character in our public schools which is neglected in the mo.dem home. Below is a typical elementary school of the modern type, into which Dr. Tigert proposes introducing the new course that methods can be successfully evolved to meet this obvious need of character- building, which formerly was supplied in the cld-fashioned home. “And right here I would like to say a word about the church schools. America owes a peculiar debt to them. For a time the brunt of battle for education and, to a larger extent, for higher liv- ing was borne in America by the church colleges. Witness, for example, the fact that of some one hundred and sixteen colleges and universities in the N 5- sippi Valley, more than a hundred of these were denominational in origin and control. Some of our State universities of the present day were denominational in their origin, “The contribution which these church educational institutions have made to American character and national in- tegrity can hardly be fully appreciated and appraised. “Often with meager fa- cilities, generally with in- adequate endowments and support, and not less fre- quently with poorly trained staffs, these insti- tutions have displayed a fidelity of purpose and their faculties have shown a spirit of sacrifice which enabled them to accom- plish results quite out of all proportion to their facilities.” Dr. Tigert believes that the dearth of culture in the United States has added to the reign of so- cial disorder now existing in the country. The practice of parents in the . old-fashioned home of fos- tering a love of music, art and literature in their children no longer pre- vails. Instead of the mass of our people reading the standard works there is a rush for books of the ho_ur which are pervaded with appeals to vulgarity and "f':l‘ha fact,” says Dr. Tigert, “that so x:uny people prefer ‘;azz to music, books with gor- did sex appeal to genu- fne literature, the trashy and salacious play to ru‘l drama and similar predi- lections, indicates that we need a real invasion of C“.I' ture and character in America. Hliter:cyh :: jous tragedy that one hesl- ::(Co}: :n Ese\::ges: that it could have any Vu:f;:t a sampling of some of the popu- lar literary pabulum that is now being swallowed by the Amofltm} people would lead one to surmise that illiteracy may have some compenaation,lund_ at Iegst serves as a literary vaccination w!}xch renders one immune to menta.l pollution. It is recorded that the American people rejected as a free gift and our art gal- leries would not provide wall space @ur Whistler's portrait of his mother, whlgh angs in Luxembourg Gallery in Paris, and {8 sajd to be vlalued at more than a million dollars. It is not pleasant or provocative of patriotism to d\_ve]] upon these things, but they certainly point clearly to the need of a thorough injection of a broad and deep ground- work of culture into our schools. «Higher living implies character and aleo implies culture. The lhomb!e sta- tistics of increasing homicides, divorces and crime are alarming thqughtfl{l per- sons. The number of homu:.ldeu in the United States has trebled in the last twenty-five years. In twenty years we have had 170,000. Of thgse arch-crimi- nals, 34,000 have since died Fnd 18,000 are still in prison. The remainder, 118, 000, are walking the streets of towns and cities free and unmolested. In 1921 we had 32,844 burglaries, 49,460 rob- peries and 10,000 murders. In England and Wales during the same year 211 rob- beries were reported to tha police and fewer than 100 murders. In ail France there were presented for trial about 385 killings and 47 robberies, now h :(IN 1870 in the United States there was one divorce for every eighteen marriages. Last year there was one divorce for every eight marriages. The percentage of crime now reported among boys and girls of high-school age by reputable authorities has become almost The rising tide of extreme modernism is bearing off the old-fashioned home on its crest, warns the United States Commissioner of Education incredible. 1 refuse to give any fur- ther currency to the statistics on this and other shocking social conditions. “This situation may be traced to many sources. The World War naturally af- fected human society rapidly and vio- lently. Since the war we have witnessed 8 very unstable condition in every realm of human relationship. The general con- ditions attendant on the war brought the country an unparalleled wave of spiritual awakening during the course of the struggle, These flood tides of lp(rit\}n] forces quickly reacted at the termination of hostilities. Ever since, we have found ourselves in the backwash of a social dis- integration. “The automobile, too, has had a very marked effect on society. No one can doubt the mechanical, commercial and recreational aspects in which we have benefited by the invention of the auto- mobile. The convenience, the speed, the comfort of the sutomobile is immeasur- ably beyond that of the horse-drawn ve- hicle. Yet we have shown an amazing ineptitude to foresee or cope with the social, moral and human problems th‘az the rapid introduction of the automo}nls has created. The increasing toll of lives taken by reckless drivers, the crime and immorality engendered by rapid trans- portation, the joy-ride, the breaking up of the old-fashioned home and other of- fects combine to suggest that the human element has suffered tremendously for the sake of the mechanical. “BUT there is a way to solve the dif- ficulties now confronting our so- cial life. And we must begin with the younger generation by teaching morals and character in the schools. We are spending more than two billion dollars every year for the education of the youth of the land. Are we making & l\lCCeil'of it? One of the great objects for whlxch we are striving is to make gooq citi- sens. 1 think it undeniable that without instilling in the minds of our young peo- ple an appreciation of the value of the old-fashioned virtues we cannot get very far toward the attainment of this ob- ject. I do not think that even the fond- est parent will contend that the young people of today are as reverent and obedient as those of past generations. It ought surely to be possible to te}eh our children the necessity of discipline and duty, integrity and uprightness without at the same time taking away from them all the joy of life.” In the days of the little red school- house the curricula were as simple as the menus in the homes of that day; “readin’, 'ritin’ and 'rithmetic” with & liberal dash of the gentle art of spell- ing constituted the course of study. The school year was arranged with an eye to the course of nature; it generally “took up” when the fall harvesting was done and closed in time to release the students for spring work. In com- parison with the work for both boys and girls that was a fixed duty, school was a lark. Nothing to do but sit still and learn a few lessons—that was in- finitely to be preferred to the daily routine of work. Another admirable feature of the early school and one which did not mani- fest itself as an official part of the course of study was the interest which mother always, and father frequently, took in the youthful student’s progress. Boys and girls in the earlier days did not start school as young as they do today, with kindergartens taking the toddlers, and almost every child entered school able to read simple English and grounded in certain other fundamentals, learned at mother’s kne. while she was sewing, knitting or about any other household task which enabled her to devote part of her all-too-well-filled time to the instruction of her children. R. TIGERT, in addition to being the Commissioner of the United States Bureau of Education, is a leading edu- cator of the country. He was born in a home on the campus of the Vander- bilt University at Nashville and has lived in an atmosphere of education and learn- ing all his life. After his graduation from Vanderbilt University he won the famous Rhodes scholarship and went to Oxford College, England, where he took two different degrees. Before being ap- pointed as Commissioner of the Bureau of Education four years ago, Dr. Tigert was professor of philosophy and psychol- ogy at the University of Kentucky, Copyrioht by Publle Ledger 2" R "Blg V