Part 23 (2/2)
The devil was less cruel when he tedos will I give Thee if thou wilt fall down and worshi+p me”
But the child has not the power to answer like Christ: ”Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written: Thou shalt worshi+p the Lord thy God, and Hiht to obey God, who has prescribed that his nature shall demand action; and that he should conquer his world as he has conquered life, to the end that he may elevate himself and not to the end that he may acquire external splendor and comfort When te the objects, the pretty, ready-ht of the goal Behold the child clumsy, unsteady, inept, enslaved! Those incapable muscles encase a captive soul He is oppressed far more by this fatal inertia than by the physical contests which initiated his relations with the adult
Often he has fits of rage like the sinner; he bites the bear that he cannot break, cries desperately when he is washed and has his hair coles when he is dressed The only radually he sinks into the depression of irateful; they have none of the higher feelings as yet; they care only for their own pleasure”
Who has not seen patient ht the hu and playing pranks with theirdolls?
They seem to say: ”Children are like this,” and a benevolent compassion takes the place of the natural reaction of iood they are! how patient they are!”
But the devil, too, is patient after this fashi+on: he too can conteonies and impotent rebellions of the souls which are in his pohich are prostrate areat quantity of means, the ends of which they have lost, souls in which the consciousness of sin is extinguished, and which are gradually sinking into an abyss ofthe their cries--and he too offers the them, that is to say, with new vanities which mask their errors, and nourish their bodies
He who, seized with doubt, should ask concerning these et an idea froood save God,” that is, the Creator Goodness is the attribute of God He who creates is good, only creation is good Hence he only is good who helps creation to achieve its ends
Noe cohtiness must be very definite here, for when a teacher has to leave the class-roo her absence, is charged to write the nahty” in two colus The child, however, who is called out is quite capable of judging, for nothing is easier than to distinguish between goodness and naughtiness in schools The good are those who are quiet and hty are those who talk and move The results of the classification are not very serious
The teacher gives good or bad ”conduct marks” The consequences are not disastrous; they are, so to speak, akin to the social judgood or bad This does not affect society, and the judgment entails neither honors nor imprisonment It is merely a pronounces which have a high ood conduct” means inertia, and ”bad conduct” means activity
The ”esteem” of the head mistress, of the teacher and of schoolfellows, the whole ”moral” part, in fact, of the system of rewards and punishments, depend upon these appreciations As in society, they require no ”judicial qualifications,” no ”authority” in those who for that ”all” can see and judge; they are the true ment of the environment; indeed, any one of the children themselves, or even the class-room attendant, may write the list on the blackboard There is, in fact, nothing mysterious or philosophical in conduct; it is the sum of acts committed, the facts of life itself, accessible to all, which determine it And all can see it and pronounce upon it
On the other hand, there are much more serious acts, the consequences of which affect the community and touch those principles of justice on which all are entitled to rely; they therefore require ”authoritative judgainst which there is no appeal; a kind of Supreme Court hastily convoked
When in an examination the children, seated side by side, have there and then to give samples of what they have learnt, that is, to hand in that veritable legal documents, the written task, be it dictation, composition or problehty, but wicked, for he has not only displayed activity, but activity for the benefit of another The punishment may be very serious: the annulment of the examination, which , the repetition of that year's course A child who can help another is kind; well, he ain, several o back for a whole year of his life and begin over again There are many cases of this kind: the family of this kind-hearted childa great effort to come out well, and so to be able soon to help his family by his own childish work; who kno his comprehension of this family condition may touch the heart of a child? He may have seen in his bewildered schoolfellow another poor boy in like circumstances How often some quarrel in his home, or insufficient food, may have caused him to lie in bed, sleepless and excited, for hours? In thehis mind was confused Perhaps his unfortunate schoolfellow had been in like case just on the eve of the examinations
It is essential to understand certain situations: the mother at home counts the days of each school year that passes, because to her these are soher boy at the examination with a heart full of anxiety; her face at the hen the child coo?”
This picture was perhaps present in the heart of the good-natured child when he helped his coht, of course, keep all this to himself, perfect his oork, or hand it in first For justice decrees that the time spent on the work should be counted by the ical experiorous On the paper handed in by the child the teacher writes the hour: handed in at 1032, handed in at 115 If two papers are about equal in merit, so that it can hardly be said froh both are superior to all the rest, a difficult case arises: it reat weight, because the prize is in question When there is a doubt, the hour decides One paper was handed in at 1030, the other at 1035
The one handed in at 1030 is pronounced the first, because the writer was able to do work of equal merit in five minutes less than his rival On what ent child must be very careful in his preparations for an examination; the two in question were equally clever and equally quick; but one had taken care to have good pens and flowing ink, and the other had not
Thus his negligence cost him the prize It is true that the parents and not the children provide the pens In strict justice all should have the saht obscure justice No, justice orous, but without scruples Now the clever child who helped his companion lost time, and so by this alone he lost part of his merit; he therefore ”sacrificed” hi circuate the punishainst the canceling of an exa circuation of punishment But school is another matter; here we have to deal with definite facts: there has been an infiltration of one e the children individually by their work Moreover, the exa occurs at the final exaain, and when a year is repeated it is the entire year It is not as with convicts, where months and weeks are taken into account Here the unit of measurement is the school year And then there is another point to consider in the case of convicts: their crimes may have been induced by irresistible forces and conditions, driving them to do evil But who is there who cannot refrain froood is certainly not an irresistible impulse!
However, to obviate such inconvenient impulses, school educates children to refrain frooes even farther: it directly prevents the children fro one with another What a chase it is! The clever, practical teacher adopts regular strategic tactics, and is familiar with all the child's devices in this covert and deceitful contest Children are ”capable of anything” to support one another and co” when one child is repeating a lessonin front of him with the open book fastened to his shoulders, where the other is able to read it Or if the wily teacherthe desks in order to prevent hins to him, perhaps by means of the deaf-and-du the blackboard as a pretext for turning the pupil with his face to the wall, the while she keeps her burning eyes fixed on the class Thus the patient is isolated ”Nothing escapes” a clever teacher; she is capable of surprising a rolled-up note slipped by one child under the desk of another; and of confiscating a piece of blotting-paper which two children interchange on the pretext of using it, when they have written upon it
For this reason properly constructed desks should be open in front, because otherwise it is so easy to pass things under theienic but ”es would be difficult to carry out
”Indeed, these desks which are open in front also facilitate surveillance of the scholars from the moral point of view; because, always seated, placed side by side without any possibility of spiritual communion, their heads dazed by the continuous vociferation of the teacher, these children very often contract vicious habits, such as onanisinate in the school itself These are less openly discussed than spinal curvature,been recognized, even before science entered upon the scene to endered by school conditions The sedentary habit ination of the blood; ies? And the evil spreads in an alares i abuses flourish in the school In the schools in Rome, for example, order and surveillance are so perfect that children are not even allowed to go to the lavatory It is well knohat disorder was caused by this 'question of the lavatory' If a child beca to the teacher, he asked leave to go out: he was capable of re shut up in the lavatory for a considerable time, in order to raise his spirits a little in a place he preferred to that he had just left, for pupils are not allowed to linger in the corridors; the attendants are always on the watch But these visits to the lavatory had become such an abuse that it was decided to take reical time is reckoned more or less exactly, and at a stated hour the whole of the pupils, acco in line two by two, like soldiers drilling, proceed to the lavatories The children of the first file enter in succession and the others halt, but continue to rees the children coin once ether with their companions The movement see of the state in which the last children in the file of forty or fifty (who did not go in as a pretence, since the 'physiological time' had been reckoned) will find the lavatory; nor e ask what has becoiene Let us look at the exterior of the lavatories; they have little doors with a large space above and a large space below; thus uarded; within, nothing but the proper duty can be performed The more modern lavatories in schools, however, are round to obviate contact and ensure hygiene: the uncoer sojourn than is necessary It appears that this is the best practical -houses, casual wards, and schools”
School is the place where the ”social sentiment” is developed; it is the child's society As a fact, it is not the school in itself, nor the intercourse of the scholars, but the education given in the ned to develop this sentih I had spoken therein of places where children live together agreeably and work, I was asked in a critical tone: ”And hoill the social sentiment be developed if each child works independently?” We i at the sa the lavatory, is supposed to develop the social sentiment The society of the child is therefore the antithesis of adult society, where sociability ie of courtesies and h each individual attends to his own business; in the society of the child it implies identity of physical attitudes and uniforard of all pleasant and courteous relations; mutual help which is a virtue in adult society, is here considered the gravest fault, the worst offense against discipline
Modern methods of instruction recommend the teacher to conclude every lesson with a moral, like the classic fables Whether the lesson treats of birds, butter, or triangles, ita ogist; ”moralization is the true aim of the school”
”Mutual aid” is the burden of the pedagogistic refrain, for the _leit that of the school, is ”to love one another” To exhort children to help one another and show icalperception, association, and volition; or she may adopt the method of cause in its relation to effect; this is left to her discretion; but she oodness,” for these are its essential constituents
But the factor which affords the anism of the school is the system of prizes and punishments