John Featherstone, "The Development of Character in the Catholic Atmosphere" (1929)

[500] No matter from what source it arises, no matter how theories of education may vary, all rise up before us and before our minds, and tell us that character, no matter how education may help to mould [sic] it, has its birth, its continuance, and its permanence in something without which education is as nothing, and that something, the everything, is religion. Thus, with our foundation laid in God, we may proceed to consider the other important requisites in the formation of the character of our children, that it may reflect credit upon its sources and obtain for its possessor the reward. And these requisites I would name as the following: the environment of a good home, with its ennobling influences; the education of the school which embraces religion; a prescribed course of studies, and a limitation of the number of students to give a teacher. Given faith, a good home, religious instruction, education in the fine arts prescribed by men of mature years, not selected by children of immature years, a class not so large that the personal and individual attentions so necessary to education will be deprived and a teacher well chosen, and a character will be the fellow and concomitant of this kind of education.

And this is the education which the Catholic Church fosters, the character education. Its first exercise is one of devotion to the living God. Its adherence to a prescribed course of studies brings more converts every day from the ranks of men who have seen the abuses of elective systems, the latter admirable for men of maturity, but too tempting for gay-hearted, thoughtless youth.

All education is a preparation for complete living and no life is complete, no education worthwhile that has not God for its [501] first source and its last end. What Archbishop Spaulding says on this point might be introduced here as very pertinent:

"If education is a training for completeness of life, its primary element is the religious, for complete life is life in God. Hence, we may not assume an attitude towards the child, whether in the home, in the church, or in the school, which might imply that life apart from God could be anything else than broken and fragmentary. A complete man is not one whose mind only is active and intelligent and enlightened; but he is a complete man who is alive in all his faculties. The truly human is found not in knowledge alone, but also in faith, in hope, in love, in pure-mindedness, in reverence, in the sense of beauty, in devoutness, in the thrill of awe, which Goethe says is the highest thing in man. If the teacher is forbidden to touch upon religion, the source of these noble virtues and ideal mood is sealed. His work and influence become mechanical and he will form but commonplace and vulgar men. And if any educational system is established on this narrow and material basis, the result will be deterioration of the national type, and the loss of the finer qualities which make men many-sided and interesting, which are the safeguards of personal purity and of unselfish conduct."

What society expects and what the Church demands from its teachers are the following: Character, teaching ability, scholarship and culture, and of these, character stands first. James E. Russell, Dean of the Teachers' College, Columbia University, tells us that as a result of many years, his experience in preparing teachers for the proper discharge of their office, is the following:

"The first qualification for professional service, therefore, is a good character, the conscious striving for high ideals. The professional worker looks to the future and is pledged by his vocation to make the future better than the present. Such an aim implies in these days the possession of two other qualifications, each potent and indispensable. One of these is specialized knowledge and technical skill. These three—an ethical aim, specialized knowledge and technical skill—are the trinity upon which professional knowledge rests."

What the child expects and has a right to demand to meet life's purposes and fit him for complete living are as Nicholas Murray [502] Butler points out, the following: Religion, literature, art, science and institutions; these are often spoken of as "man's fivefold spiritual inheritances". What society particularly asks of both teacher and pupil, what it demands as a result of the educative process, is social efficiency. This has been defined as "the ability to enter into a progressive social process and to do one's part towards advancing the interests of the whole, while at the same time attaining the highest realization of the self". And so it comes to pass that the Catholic teacher must nourish his soul and give soul; because in the measure in which he gives out his life, must he renew his vigor.

What culture should the teacher acquire? All that may be for him, a principle of life and a principle of action; his faith, his virtue, his knowledge. "As the heart makes the home, the teacher makes the school". . [sic] In brief, the soul of every teacher should be a model for the imitation of others, only in this way can character be influenced and eventually be formed. For soul can act upon soul and only in the development of the character of the teacher can we look for development in the character of the pupil. 

In phrasing the title of this paper I have used the term, a contributing factor in the development of character in relation to the school in a qualified sense and advisedly. For, after all, right conduct is the result of many factors, many trials, and experiences. But of these experiences, the school plays a very important part, but only a part.

To meet life's purposes the student must be able to meet every situation in which he finds himself. Now the school may prepare him but it is only a preparation; the home, his everyday environment, the playground, his associates, his very indifferent actions all tend to the building of character, whether that building up in the nature of development of will depends upon the nature of the influences, and this is what I have insisted upon from the very beginning.

Of the various influences that have a tendency to develop character, I might cite the following with relation to the school: Discipline, a recognition and fulfillment of duty; it is more than [503] instruction, drill or order. I tis more than the teacher's influence over the children; it embodies rules of government, and claims subjection to those rules. "The most perfect are those who have their passions in the best discipline." It means more than chastisement or correction, though it is often used in the sense. Its chief characteristic is that it is a force for moral training. The next is acquisition, that is the possession of fundamental facts that approximates truth. The next is assimilation, the realization of these truths in their relation to right conduct, for after all, conduct is three-fourths of life. 

Appreciation follows, for here implies an approach to the good, the beautiful and the true. The next is aspiration, or the motivation for nobler purposes, and worthy ideals. The last is expression, or the human will in operation from the kindergarten to the university. The aim of elementary education is to govern instinct into habit; that of the secondary school to direct habit into character; that of the college and the normal school is to guide character into destiny or life's purposes.

But what is the purpose of life? No word has been more variously defined than the word "life". Let us take from the book of life three instances of life as recorded there. When our Divine Lord spoke of life He stated the term in this fashion, "I am come that you may have life and life more abundantly"; now there are three significant instances in the Bible that illustrate its meaning in a rather definite way. The first, that of the Prodigal Son, who spent his substance in riotous living and in the end found nothing; the next, that of the Rich Young Man, who wished for Eternal Life, but would not part with his riches; of his ultimate fate, the Scripture does not tell us; and the last, that of St. Paul, who tells us, "I live, no, not I, but Christ who liveth in me". This is life as the Church teaches and this is the meaning and end of all true Catholic Education and the only motive the Church has for its children to meet life's purposes. "Seek first the Kingdom of God and all these things will be added on to you."

Can this life be taught as a matter of habit and eventually have an influence as development of character? Can religion be [504] taught? Let me quote here a passage from an eminent educator who spent all his life in the classroom when not at his religious exercises, the lamented Brother Azarias:

"Not that religion can be imparted as knowledge of history or grammar is taught. The repetition of the Catechism or the reading of the Gospel is not religion. Religion is something more subtle, more intimate, more all-pervading. It speaks to head and heart. It is an ever-living presence in the classroom. It is nourished by the prayers with which one's daily exercises are opened and closed. It is reflected from the pages of one's reading books. It controls the affections; it keeps watch over the imagination; it permits the mind only useful and holy and innocent thoughts; in enables the soul to resist temptations; it guides the conscience; it inspires a horror for sin and a love for virtue;—it should be and should form an essential portion of our life. It should be the very atmosphere of our breathing. it should be the soul of every action. We should live under its influence, act out its precepts, think and speak according to its laws as unconsciously as we breathe. It should be so intimate a portion of ourselves that we could not, even if we would, ever get rid of. this is religion as the Church understands religion. Therefore does the Church foster the religious spirit in every soul confided to her at all times, under all circumstances, without rest, without break, from the cradle to the grave."

We may safely make this assertion, that it is only in the religious atmosphere that character can be developed. Years ago, the famous Munsterberg laid it down as a principle in education that the child, not the subject of study, is the guide to the teacher's efforts; what the child was and would become is the real test. Not what he knows. It is true that we want our children to cope with life's material interests and in the struggle for existence we want them to receive the better things in life; but the chief concern is first that they be real, sincere Catholics. In America to-day where the chief concern is for social preeminence, wealth, power, this striving for higher ideals should be more stressed in our schools and your Catholic men and women of character should show these qualities that reflect the Catholic spirit and tradition. Character rightly developed will bring about all this, [505]

"The term character has been variously defined. It is the great word introduced into the theory of the aim of education by Herbart, who himself received it from his predecessor, the Sage of Konigsberg, Immanuel Kant.

"It is Kant who says that the only absolutely good thing in the world is a good will. The great German idealists, Fichte and Hegel, take up the strain that the end of education is the formation of character, of moral character. The great common sense of mankind always held that the head must not be educated at the expense of the heart. The feelings of worth attaching to the life devoted to goodness demand that character form a permanent constituent of the educational ideal."

Character, says an eminent Catholic writer, is the human will in operation in which life is dominated by principle. In other words, it is the established will. We all know the meaning of conduct, human conduct, but how variously that term can be defined. After all, conduct is the result of our habits and might be defined as the moral average of that total. The essential ingredient in character is, as Sully observes, the fixity of disposition in the right directions. In its earliest form, character is but little more than the sum of all the hereditary instincts of the child; as the intellect and will develop, the meaning attached to character becomes more specialized and it is made to refer to those acquisitions like independence and finesse, which are the product of voluntary exertion. 

What we mean by character is a good or virtuous disposition of the feelings and the will; hence the reason for stating that it is established; established in the truth, the realization of which enters into our lives, and shows in our conduct. Now character is known by conduct and conduct is the result of habit. But character in fact, is less the sum of our habits and tastes than the possession of a will that is strong, enlightened, just, good, capable of coping with events; and a character thus constituted is the ideal of moral education. And what is the will? By many writers it has often been confounded with desire and this is wrong. Desire is blind and fatal. The will is reasonable and controllable. It concerns itself with that which seems can be attained, for this reason the will is not always in proportion to [506] our desires. In several in incompatible alternates, only one can be willed.

Many of the impulses of young children and moral weaklings never get beyond the stage of desire. Action is often arrested from fear of consequences. A number of impulses arise and maintain a state of conflict, which paralyzes action. To overcome this a painful effort is necessary. And we all know that it is only the grace of God that can cope with a situation like this. Hence it is, that the only atmosphere conducive for a complete and real development of character is the religious atmosphere.

A very close relation exists between motive and intention. The motive of an act is that which induces us to perform it. It denotes the impulse that precedes volition; in short, it is the final cause which moves the will, and here again, we repeat, no matter how education may help to mould character, it has its birth, its continuance and its permanence in something without which education is as nothing and that something, the everything, is religion.

In conclusion let me add, never in the history of the United States have we more need for men of character, Catholic men, than we have to-day. Michael Williams in his recent work, Catholicism and the Modern Mind, has brought out this fact with special emphasis. If as we have stated, character is less the sum of our habits and tastes than the possession of a will that is strong, enlightened, just and good—capable of coping with events and these events and situations are arising every day, so that we have need of men of character, Catholic trained men to cope with these events and it is only the man of character that can emerge from battle without being tainted. Governor Smith's answer to Mr. Marshall is a case in point, and the final utterance of Marshal Foch illustrates the matter in a manner truly sublime.

The deep realization of the truths of Catholic faith translated into terms of conduct leads to the full and complete development of character, for if it be true that character is life dominated by principles, such a life will react on those with whom we come in contact; man's self, apart from his mere physical body, consists in his peculiar organization of instincts and habits, in common [507] language this constitutes his personality. We can infer from it what he will, as we say, characteristically do in any given situation. And a particular organization of instincts and habits is depended very largely on the individual's social experience, on the types and varieties of contact with other people that he has established. Give such a man a training in a religious atmosphere, in terms as I have quoted from Brother Azarias, and he cannot, will not go wrong. That some have done wrong and gone the way of all flesh only proves the rule. And where one falls, a hundred are daily in the market place, waiting, because no one has hired them.

The following authors and their works were freely consulted in the preparation of this paper:

Educational Psychology . . . Thorndike

Human Traits . . . Erdman

Introduction to Philosophy . . . Dubray

Psychology for Teachers . . . Benson, Lough, West

Psychology in Education . . . Roark

Means and Ends of Education . . . Spaulding

Development of Personality . . . Bro. Chrysostom

Character Building . . . C. S. Coles

Essays Miscellaneous . . . Bro. Azarias

Educational Psychology . . . Titchenor

Psychology and the Teacher . . . Munsterberg

Psychology Without a Soul  . . . Gruender

C. E. A. Bulletin (1914) . . . Development of Character

C. E. A. Bulletin (1919) . . . Development of Character

C. E. A. Bulletin (1921) . . . Development of Character

Educational Psychology . . . Starch

Readings in the History of Education . . . Cubberly

The Formation of Character . . . Hull, S. J.

Psychology in the Class Room . . . Horne

Character Education . . . N. E. A. Bulletin (1926)

Character and Conduct . . . School Publication, Los Angeles School District, No. 80

Foundation of Personality . . . A. Meyerson

Human Conduct . . . C. C. Peters

Formative Factors in Character . . . Herbert

Character in the Making . . . H. P. Schauffler

 

 

 

 

 

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Source: Rev. John J. Featherstone, "The Development of Character in the Catholic Atmosphere," National Catholic Educational Association Bulletin 26, no. 1 (Nov. 1929): 500–507.