The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 13, September, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 13, September, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
unremitted attention to these matters. But every body's experience,
who has taken much notice of the manner in which schools are generally
conducted, is sufficient to convince them that such promises are more
matters of profession than practice; or, that they are complied with
in such a way, as unavoidably to impress the pupils with a belief that
it is rather an affair of form than substance. Does any one doubt this
fact? let him only take the trouble to ask the majority of the
scholars of any school the following questions, and his skepticism
will soon vanish. "What has been the course of your moral and
religious instruction? What books have you read, or have been read to
you on these subjects? What do you know of the principles of Ethics
and Christianity? How many times a week or month have you received
lessons on them? If nothing has been read specially on these
all-important topics, what has been the manner in which they have been
recommended to your attention? Has it been both by precept and
example, or by the first only; and what rank have your teachers
assigned to such studies, in the scale of importance?" Need I add,
that unless such questions can be answered to the entire satisfaction
of all such persons as really believe that the eternal welfare of the
rising generation is a matter of infinitely deeper interest than any
thing which can possibly happen to them in the present life, the
conclusion is inevitable, that _in all such cases_, by far the most
important part of Education has been either shamefully neglected, or
miserably and wickedly perverted. Let such tests be applied to _all_
schools, from the highest to the lowest, and we shall soon remove much
the most powerful of the many causes which prevent them from answering
so fully as they ought to do, the great purposes for which they have
been established and should be sustained, until the heads of every
family become capable of educating their own children--the girls
_entirely_, and the boys until the few last years of their pupilage.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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