Page images
PDF
EPUB

follow lust, while they spurn poverty, laugh at meekness, mistrust piety, hate education, and believe honesty and justice a fable. And so the majority of men are bad, even while our natures incline us more to virtue than vice. It is the duty of mothers to correct these impressions while the minds of the children are unformed; and it is for them to keep alive in their hearts the Divine spark which God has planted there. Again, mothers should be careful not to enfeeble the mental and corporeal powers of their boys by too much tenderThere are mothers, he says, whose children never eat, drink,

ness.

or sleep enough. Such care they should devote to the cultivation of their children's minds. He dwells upon the necessity of severe discipline, and would not have the mother weaken her influence over her children by showing too much fondness. Sons, he says, may be

spoiled by yielding too much, but girls are utterly ruined by it. Lax discipline makes a man bad enough, but it renders girls criminal. These views are a consequence of his belief that women are more inclined by nature to sin than men, and the rule he lays down for the education of girls results from this. Even in the earliest years he would have complete separation of the sexes, even in children's games. Dolls he would banish from the nursery, as they only encourage vanity and love of dress; and he recommends as playthings, toys which represent household articles. All girls, even the daughters of princes, he would have brought up to direct the house, be familiar with all the details of its management. They should learn to cook as well; and he says the reason the Belgians spend so much time at the taverns is because their tables are so badly supplied at home. As to the actual instruction girls should receive, Vives sees no reason why they should not be as well educated as men, as far as their capabilities go, with this exception, that the studies they pursue should be directed to their moral elevation, and, therefore, be li.nited to such authors as elevate and refine their characters. Women learn for their own sakes, not, like men, for the good of the whole; to appear as teachers is not becoming in women, and their efforts in this direction should be limited to the circle of their own children.

The Pedagogy of Vives, regarded as a whole, has the merit of being a thorough and logically-deduced system. Although appearing in disconnected form, scattered through all his works, his system has a unity of design, of which we may briefly give the leading points.

Christianity, colored, indeed, by mediaeval scholasticism and prejudice, but, on the whole, rather a platonic, stoical Christianity, forms the basis. Honesty, justice, and purity of heart are the great virtues upon which the temporal and eternal happiness of mankind is based. The sin developed by the original fall of man is woven into society, and produces there the worst effects. Selfishness is nourished by the continual thirst for wealth and power;

temporal greatness is admired and sought for by every means. Pride, meanness of spirit, desire of power, and cowardly servility, spring from the same sources. Men who, following their better natures, would, perhaps, be virtuous, are carried away by the general tendency to wickedness, and their influence works in turn on their children. The evil must be combated in the State, in the family, in each one's own heart. The first is the duty of the man, the family is the field for the women. The most important bonds of society, the most important means of making one's influence felt in the State, is speech. Freedom of speech flourishes in free States, but is crushed by tyrants. Men should be formed by education, not only to recognize what is good, but exemplify and enforce by their lives and words. The characters of those who are destined to rule the State should not only be carefully trained, but their minds ought, by every means, to be developed, and they should be exercised in oratory. The princes, as, indeed, almost all the great dignitaries of Church and State, are ruined by selfishness and flattery. The principles of peace and obedience to authority forbid us to proceed against them other than with spiritual means; but these every honest man can and should use, so as to awaken the consciences of those in power, and supplant, by truth, hypocrisy and flattery. No means should be neglected to work on the consciences of the heirs of princes, nor should the people be neglected, as they often receive such instruction more gratefully than the others. The law, which, as it is at présent, only encourages litigation and hate, stands in need of a vigorous reform. It should be simplified and modelled in the spirit of the people, on strict principles of equity and natural justice. It follows that the culture, both of the family and school, should not only aim at overcoming these false ideas of greatness and splendor, and producing, in their stead, true principles of virtue, but that all the influences of the school, and the general intercourse between teacher and pupil, should be such as to edify and ennoble the latter. No distinction should be accorded to the scholar because of the wealth and position of its parents; they should be taught to love one another as brothers.

The sciences are ruined from the same causes as society. The desire to be an authority in the literary world corresponds to the lust for power in the State; and the blind reverence for the words of the master to the cowardly servility before authority. The same spirit which leads to war and ruins States, causes no less devastation in the liberal arts. The disputes of parties resound in the academic halls, and render the quiet acquisition of knowledge impossible. Triumphing over others, and winning an empty title, are not worthy objects of our endeavors. It should be all the same to us by whom truth is discovered. The interest in the subject itself, and the pure consciousness of acquiring knowledge, are better than the praises of

the schools. But the sciences stand in need of a material reform. For example, history is so obscured by a mass of tradition and falsehood, that it is difficult to find out the real truth; and thus it is with many other branches of learning. To remedy this, we must cut ourselves off from the noisy wrangling of the schools, and treat the subject with unprejudiced minds.

Vives saw clearly the evils which were threatening Church and State in his day, and endeavored to combat them in the manner we have briefly shown. He founded no school, but the influence of his powerful mind has been clearly felt, although not always acknowledged by those who have profited by his teachings.

[graphic][merged small][graphic][merged small]

PLANS FOR VILLAGES AND RURAL DISTRICTS IN MASSACHUSETTS, WITH REMARKS ON THE CONDITION OF SCHOOL-HOUSES IN 1872.

The following Remarks are taken from the Special Report of Mr. Phipps, General Agent of the Board of Education, published in the Annual Report of the Board to the Legislature in 1873.

In 1837, when the Board was established, the condition of the public school-houses throughout the State, taken as a whole, was disgraceful, and for years had been growing worse and worse. Upon churches, court-houses and jails, houses and stables and other buildings, public and private, money had been freely expended to secure comfort, neatness, and even elegance. The school-houses alone were neglected, and "suffered to go where age and the elements would carry them." Not onethird part of the public school-houses in Massachusetts were considered tenantable by any decent family, out of the poor-house, or in it.

When Mr. Mann entered upon his duties as the first secretary of your Board, the deplorable condition of the school-houses attracted his attention, and his earliest and most earnest efforts were directed to their improvement. The "Supplement" to his first annual report (in March, 1838) was devoted to this subject, and was instrumental in awakening an interest, which, strengthened by his own earnest and persistent efforts in this direction, and by those of his successors and their associates, has culminated in the present greatly improved condition of the schoolbuildings in our own and other States.

In previous reports I have spoken of the wretched school-buildings which I have found in many parts of the State, sparsely populated, and remote from the centers of wealth, and although they are from year to year giving place to new and greatly improved ones, very many still remain. Need I say that these are mostly to be found in those towns that still cling to the "district system," and that so long as that continues to exist, little or no improvement in school accommodations can be expected of them? When the law was passed in 1869, abolishing the district system, and thus transferring the ownership and control of the school-buildings to the several towns, in very many places the improvement of the school-buildings was entered upon at once. Old buildings were sold or thoroughly repaired and remodeled; new ones were erected, and furnished with modern furniture and many other needed appliances. In some towns, having numerous district schools, containing frequently less than a dozen children, and continued for unequal periods, of in some cases less than the minimum time required by law, a few large buildings were erected in such localities as would accommodate large numbers of children, who being distributed in the different rooms according to their proficiency in study, could be taught much more efficiently in these graded schools, and enjoy equal privileges in point of time. I cite one or two out of numerous instances in confirmation of this statement:

In 1868-9, the Committee in a districted town, speaking of the schoolhouses, say: "Most of them are old, out of repair, and badly constructed, and in some instances about the only remains of a once flourishing neighborhood. They have stood up and battled with time and progress

« PreviousContinue »