Popular Education Part 24

It is made the duty of the "several cities and towns availing themselves of the provisions of this act, to appoint, at the annual meetings of said towns, or annually by the mayor and aldermen of said cities, three or more persons, who alone shall be authorized to make the complaints, in every case of violation of said ordinances or by-laws, to the justice of the peace, or other judicial officer, who, by said ordinances, shall have jurisdiction in the matter, which persons thus appointed shall alone have authority to carry into execution the judgments of said justices of the peace, or other judicial officer."

It is further provided that "the said justices of the peace, or other judicial officer, shall, in all cases, at their discretion, in place of the fine aforesaid, be authorized to order children proved before them to be growing up in truancy, and without the benefit of the education provided for them by law, to be placed, for such periods of time as they may judge expedient, in such inst.i.tution of instruction, or house of reformation, or other suitable situation, as may be a.s.signed or provided for the purpose in each city or town availing itself of the powers herein granted."

This principle has been incorporated into several munic.i.p.al codes.

Children in the city of Boston, under sixteen years of age, whose "parents are dead, or, if living, do, from vice, or any other cause, neglect to provide suitable employment for, or to exercise salutary control over" them, may be sent by the court to the house of reformation. By the late act, establishing the State Reform School, male convicts under sixteen years of age may be sent to this school from any part of the commonwealth, to be there "instructed in piety and morality, and in such branches of useful knowledge as shall be adapted to their age and capacity." The inmates may be bound out; but, in executing this part of their duty, the trustees "shall have scrupulous regard to the religious and moral character of those to whom they are bound, to the end that they may secure to the boys the benefit of a good example, and wholesome instruction, and the sure means of improvement in virtue and knowledge, and thus the opportunity of becoming intelligent, moral, useful, and happy citizens of the commonwealth."

The Ma.s.sachusetts State Reform School is designed to be a "school for the instruction, reformation, and employment of juvenile offenders." Any boy under sixteen years of age, "convicted of any offense punishable by imprisonment other than for life," may be sentenced to this school. Here he may be kept during the term of his sentence; or he may be bound out as an apprentice; or, in case he proves incorrigible, he may be sent to prison, as he would originally have been but for the existence of this school.

The buildings erected are sufficiently large for three hundred boys.

Attached to the establishment is a large farm, the cost of all which, when the buildings are completed and furnished, and the farm stocked and provided with agricultural implements, it is estimated will be about one hundred thousand dollars. A citizen of that state has given twenty-two thousand five hundred dollars to this inst.i.tution, partly to defray past expenses and partly to form a fund for its future benefit.

"In visiting this n.o.ble inst.i.tution, one can not but think how closely it resembles, in spirit and in purpose, the mission of Him who came to seek and to save that which was lost; and yet, in traversing its s.p.a.cious halls and corridors, the echo of each footfall seems to say that one tenth part of its cost would have done more in the way of prevention than its whole amount can accomplish in the way of reclaiming, and would, besides, have saved a thousand pangs that have torn parental hearts, and a thousand more wounds in the hearts of the children themselves, which no human power can ever wholly heal. When will the state learn that it is better to spend its units for prevention than tens and hundreds for remedy? How long must the state, like those same unfortunate children, suffer the punishment of THEIR existence before IT will be reformed?"

Kindred inst.i.tutions have existed in several of our princ.i.p.al cities for a quarter of a century, among which are the House of Reformation for Juvenile Delinquents in New York, the House of Refuge in Philadelphia, and the House of Reformation in Boston. Considering the degradation of their parents, the absence of correct early instruction, and the corrupting influences to which the children sent to these inst.i.tutions have been exposed, becoming generally _criminals_ before any effort has been made by the humane for their correct educational training, one may well wonder at the success which has crowned the efforts that have been put forth in their behalf, for the greater part of them _are effectually and permanently reformed_. This, however, only shows more clearly the power of education, and the advantages that may be derived from the establishment and maintenance of improved common schools throughout our country.

_But how are these reforms effected?_ The means are simple, and are slightly different from those already described for the correct training of unoffending children. Take, for instance, the House of Reformation in the City of New York. In the first place, they have a good school-house, embracing nearly all the modern improvements. The yard and play-ground are of ample dimensions, and are inclosed by a substantial fence. This const.i.tutes a barrier beyond which the children, once within, can not pa.s.s. But the clean gravel-walks, the beautiful shade-trees, the green gra.s.s-plats, the sparkling fountains, the ornamental flower-garden, all conspire to render the place delightful. It is, indeed, a prison in one sense, but the children seem hardly to know it. Then, again, well-qualified teachers and superintendents are employed. The spirit which actuates them is that of love. By proving themselves the friends of the children, the children become their friends, and are hence easily governed, considering their former neglect. Being well instructed, they love study, and generally make commendable progress. Their habits are regular, and they are constantly employed. A portion of the day is devoted to study; another portion to industrial pursuits; and still another to recreation and amus.e.m.e.nts. Strict obedience is required. This may be yielded at first from restraint, but ultimately from love. The love of kind and faithful teachers, the love of approving consciences, the love of right, the love of G.o.d, separately and conjointly influence them, until they can say ultimately of a truth, "_The love of Christ constraineth us._"

Their industrial habits are of incalculable benefit to them. They all learn some trade, and acquire the habits and the skill requisite to const.i.tute them producers, and thus practically conform to this fundamental law, "_that if any man would not work, neither should he eat_." The other conditions that have been stated as essential to success are also complied with, the scholars being kept under the influence of good teachers, and of the same teachers from year to year, during their continuance in the inst.i.tution.

The well-qualified and eminently successful teacher who has long been connected with the Refuge in New York, in a late report says, "The habits of industry which the children here acquire will be of incalculable benefit to them through life. Yet we look upon the School Department as the greatest of all the means employed to save our youthful charge from ignorance and vice. As it is the mind and the heart that are mostly depraved, so we must act mostly upon the mind and the heart to eradicate this depravity.

"The education here is a _moral_ education. We do endeavor, it is true, by all the powers we possess, to impress upon the mind the great importance of a good education; and not only to _impress_ it upon the mind, but to a.s.sist the mind to act, that it may obtain it. But our princ.i.p.al aim is to fan into life the almost dying spark of virtue, and kindle anew the moral feelings, that they may glow with fresh ardor, and shine forth again in the beauty of innocence. Our object is not to store the memory with facts, but to elevate the soul; not to think for the children, but to teach them to think for themselves; to describe the road, and put them in the way; never to hint what they have been, nor what they are, but to point them continually to what they may be.

"_We feel a.s.sured that our labor will not be lost._ Judging the future from the past, we are sanguine in our belief that our toils have left an impress upon the mind which time can not efface. Scarcely a week pa.s.ses but our hearts are cheered and animated, and our eyes are gladdened at the sight of those whom we taught in by-gone years, who bid no fairer then to cheer us than those with whom we labor now. Yet they are saved--saved to themselves; saved to society; saved to their friends--who, but for this Refuge, would have poisoned the moral atmosphere of our land, and breathed around them more deadly effluvia than that of the fabled Upas."

The success which has attended well-directed efforts for the reformation of juvenile delinquents, and _evening free schools_ for the education of adults of all ages whose early education has been neglected, ought to inspire the friends of human improvement with increased confidence in the redeeming power of a correct early education, such as every state in this Union may provide for all her children. When this confidence is begotten, and when a good common education comes to be generally regarded as the birth-right of every child in the community, then may the friends of free inst.i.tutions and of indefinite human advancement look for the more speedy realization of their long-cherished hopes. For one generation the community must be doubly taxed--once in the reformation of juvenile delinquents, and in the education of ignorant adults in evening schools, and again in the correct training of all our children in improved schools. This done, each succeeding generation will come upon the stage under more favorable circ.u.mstances than the preceding, and each present generation will be better prepared to educate that which is to follow, to the end of time.

THE REDEEMING POWER OF COMMON SCHOOLS.

If all our schools were under the charge of teachers possessing what I regard as the right intellectual and moral qualifications, and if all the children of the community were brought under the influence of these schools for ten months in the year, I think that the work of training up THE WHOLE COMMUNITY to intelligence and virtue would soon be accomplished, as completely as any human end can be obtained by human means.--REV. JACOB ABBOTT.

I might here introduce a vast amount of incontrovertible evidence to show that, if the attendance of all the children in any commonwealth could be secured at such improved common schools as we have been contemplating for ten months during the year, from the age of four to that of sixteen years, they would prove competent to the removal of ninety-nine one hundredths of the evils with which society is now infested in one generation, and that they would ultimately redeem the state from social vices and crimes.

The Hon. Horace Mann, late Secretary of the Ma.s.sachusetts Board of Education, issued a circular in 1847, in which he raised the question now under consideration. This circular was sent out to a large number of the most experienced and reputable teachers in the Northern and Middle States, all of whom were pleased to reply to it. Each reply corroborates the position here stated; and, taken together _as a whole_, they are ent.i.tled to implicit credence. The whole correspondence is too voluminous to be here exhibited; I can not, however, forbear introducing a few ill.u.s.trative pa.s.sages.

Says Mr. Page, the late lamented princ.i.p.al of the New York State Normal School, "Could I be connected with a school furnished with all the appliances you name; where all the children should be constant attendants upon my instruction for a succession of years; where all my fellow-teachers should be such as you suppose; and where all the favorable influences described in your circular should surround me and cheer me, even with my moderate abilities as a teacher, I should scarcely expect, after the first generation submitted to the experiment, to fail _in a single case_ to secure the results you have named."

Mr. Solomon Adams, of Boston, who has been engaged in the profession of teaching twenty-four years, remarks as follows: "Permit me to say that, in very many cases, after laboring long with individuals almost against hope, and sometimes in a manner, too, which I can now see was not always wise, I have never had a case which has not resulted in some good degree according to my wishes. The many kind and voluntary testimonials given years afterward by persons who remembered that they were once my way-ward pupils, are among the pleasantest and most cheering incidents of my life. So uniform have been the results, when I have had a fair trial and time enough, that I have unhesitatingly adopted the motto, _Never despair._ Parents and teachers are apt to look for too speedy results from the labors of the latter. The moral nature, like the intellectual and physical, is long and slow in reaching the full maturity of its strength. I was told a few years since by a person who knew the history of nearly all my pupils for the first five years of my labor, that not one of them had ever brought reproach upon himself or mortification upon friends by a bad life. I can not now look over the whole of my pupils, and find one who had been with me long enough to receive a decided impression, whose life is not honorable and useful. I find them in all the learned professions and in the various mechanical arts. I find my female pupils scattered as teachers through half the states of the Union, and as the wives and a.s.sistants of Christian missionaries in every quarter of the globe.

"So far, therefore, as my own experience goes, so far as my knowledge of the experience of others extends, so far as the statistics of crime throw any light upon the subject, I confidently expect that ninety-nine in a hundred, and I think even more, with such means of education as you have supposed, and with such Divine favor as we are authorized to expect, would become good members of society, the supporters of order, and law, and truth, and justice, and all righteousness."

The Rev. Jacob Abbott, who has been engaged in the practical duties of teaching for about ten years in the cities of Boston and New York, and who has had under his care about eight hundred pupils of both s.e.xes, and of all ages from four to twenty-five, has expressed in a long letter the sentiment placed at the head of this section. "If all our schools were under the charge of teachers possessing what I regard as the right intellectual and moral qualifications, and if all the children of the community were brought under the influence of these schools for ten months in the year, I think the work of training up THE WHOLE COMMUNITY to intelligence and virtue would soon be accomplished as completely as any human end can be obtained by human means."

Mr. Roger S. Howard, of Vermont, who has been engaged in teaching about twenty years, remarks, among other things, as follows: "Judging from what I have seen and do know, if the conditions you have mentioned were strictly complied with; if the attendance of the scholars could be as universal, constant, and long-continued as you have stated; if the teachers were men and women of those high intellectual and moral qualities--apt to teach, and devoted to their work, and favored with that blessing which the word and providence of G.o.d teach us always to expect upon our honest, earnest, and well-directed efforts in so good a cause--on these conditions and under these circ.u.mstances, I do not hesitate to express the opinion that the failures need not be--would not be one per cent."

Miss Catharine E. Beecher, of Brattleboro, Vermont, who has been engaged directly and personally as a teacher about fifteen years, in Hartford, Connecticut, and Cincinnati, Ohio, and who has had the charge of not less than a thousand pupils from every state in the Union, after stating these and other considerations, remarks as follows: "I will now suppose that it could be so arranged that, in a given place, containing from ten to fifteen thousand inhabitants, in any part of the country where I ever resided, _all_ the children at the age of four shall be placed six hours a day, for twelve years, under the care of teachers having the same views that I have, and having received that course of training for their office that any state in this Union can secure to the teachers of its children. Let it be so arranged that all these children shall remain till sixteen under these teachers, and also that they shall spend their lives in this city, and I have no hesitation in saying I do not believe that _one_, no, NOT A SINGLE ONE, would fail of proving a respectable and prosperous member of society; nay, more, I believe every one would, at the close of life, find admission into the world of endless peace and love. I say this solemnly, deliberately, and with the full belief that I am upheld by such imperfect experimental trials as I have made, or seen made by others; but, more than this, that I am sustained by the authority of Heaven, which sets forth this grand palladium of education, '_Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it._

"This sacred maxim surely sets the Divine _imprimatur_ to the doctrine that _all_ children _can_ be trained up in the way they should go, and that, when so trained, they will not depart from it. Nor does it imply that education _alone_ will secure eternal life without supernatural a.s.sistance; but it points to the true method of securing this indispensable aid.

"In this view of the case, I can command no language strong enough to express my infinite longings that my countrymen, who, as legislators, have the control of the inst.i.tutions, the laws, and the wealth of our _physically_ prosperous nation, should be brought to see that they now have in their hands the power of securing to _every_ child in the coming generation a life of virtue and usefulness here, and an eternity of perfected bliss hereafter. How, then, can I express, or imagine, the awful responsibility which rests upon them, and which hereafter they must bear before the great Judge of nations, if they suffer the present state of things to go on, bearing, as it does, thousands and hundreds of thousands of helpless children in our country to hopeless and irretrievable ruin!"

Testimony similar to the preceding might be multiplied to almost any extent. Enough, however, I trust, has been said to remove any doubts in relation to the redeeming power of education which the reader may have previously entertained. Universal education, we have seen, const.i.tutes the most effectual and the only sure means of securing to individuals and communities, to states and nations, exemption from all avoidable evils of whatever kind, and the possession of a competency of this world's goods, with the ability and disposition so to enjoy them as most to augment human happiness. Yes, education, and nothing short of it, will dissipate the evils of ignorance; it will greatly increase the productiveness of labor, and make men more moral, industrious, and skillful, and thus diminish pauperism and crime, while at the same time it will indefinitely augment the sum total of human happiness. By diminishing the number of fatal accidents that are constantly occurring in every community, and securing to the rising generation such judicious physical and moral treatment as shall give them sound minds in sound bodies, it will lay an unfailing foundation for general prosperity, will greatly promote longevity, and will thus, in both of these and in many other ways, do more to increase the population, wealth, and universal well-being of the thirty states of this Union than all other means of state policy combined.

At the late Peace Convention at Paris to consider the practicability and necessity of a Congress of Nations to adjust national differences, composed of about fifteen hundred members, picked men from every Christian nation, VICTOR HUGO, the President of the Convention, on taking the chair, made an address that was received with great applause, in which the following pa.s.sages occur:

"A day will come when men will no longer bear arms one against the other; when appeals will no longer be made to war, but to civilization!

The time will come when the cannon will be exhibited as an old instrument of torture, and wonder expressed how such a thing could have been used. A day, I say, will come when the United States of America and the United States of Europe will be seen extending to each other the hand of fellowship across the ocean, and when we shall have the happiness of seeing every where the majestic radiation of universal concord."

That such a time will come, every heart that glows with Christian benevolence must earnestly desire and fervently pray. But we can not hope to attain the end without the use of the necessary means. So glorious a result as this, that has become an object of universal desire throughout Christendom, must follow when the conditions upon which it depends are complied with. What these are there can be little room for doubt. Let, then, every friend of Universal Peace seek it in the use of the appropriate means--_Universal Education_.

The same remark will apply to every form of Christian benevolence and universal philanthropy; for, as has been well remarked, in universal education, every "follower of G.o.d and friend of human kind" will find the only sure means of carrying forward that particular reform to which he is devoted. In whatever department of philanthropy he may be engaged, he will find that department to be only a segment of the great circle of beneficence of which _Universal Education_ is the center and circ.u.mference; and that he can most successfully promote the permanent advancement of his most cherished interest in securing the establishment of, and attendance upon, IMPROVED SCHOOLS FREE TO ALL.

THE END.