Criminality and economic conditionsBonger, Willem Adriaan
General
Criminality and economic conditions
Bonger, Willem Adriaan
Crime -- Economic aspects
In the second place, as the author himself partly admits, the influence
that education may exert cannot be exactly fixed, no matter what
progress pedagogical science may make, for the following reasons. It is
only in school that the scientific pedagogical method is applied, and
plainly in an incomplete and imperfect manner. In order that children
shall be taught and developed they must be well fed and well clothed.
Without this the results will be very small, but pupils insufficiently
fed and clothed are to be counted by thousands. It is also necessary
that a class include as few pupils as possible, in order that the
instructor may not have to divide his attention too much. Yet how many
cases are there where this is found? For these reasons, to which might
be added others, all of an exclusively economic nature, the school does
not contribute as much as it might to moral education. The advantage of
the education given in school over that furnished by the parents
consists in its practical application, at least in part, according to
pedagogical rules. The parents who set themselves to bring up their
children on scientific principles are so few as to be easily counted.
Almost all are novices in this very difficult trade; little attention
is paid to whether parents are ignorant or educated, good or bad,
patient or irascible, capable or incapable, in short, of bringing up
their children. The present organization of society is based upon the
fiction that the person who gives life to a child is also fitted to
bring it up. Further, existing social conditions put many parents,
however capable they might otherwise be, in a position where they
cannot give their children any care, on account of the long
working-day, the labor of married women, etc. These remarks, it seems
to me, are in themselves enough to show that we cannot just now come to
a definite conclusion, that the influence of education may extend to
such and such a point, but no further.
In the third place, it remains to make valid objections to the
principal thesis that forms the foundation of the chapter. Here it is
in brief. There was a time when men lived in anti-social conditions;
all were enemies one of another. This situation lasted for ages until
the social sentiments grew up and civilization developed. But these
anti-social germs having lasted for ages, while the social germs are
only of recent date, it follows that the former are generally much
stronger than the latter. This is why the tendency to evil has
predominated in man, and why crime has such enormous dimensions.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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