John Wise, SJ, "Liberal Education: Three Facts of History Concerning the Liberal Arts" (1948)

[8] There are three facts which stand out from history, when one investigates the nature of the liberal arts. The first striking fact is that science is an historical and essential component, and a basic part of the liberal arts. To speak about a college of arts and sciences is the same thing as to speak about a college of the liberal arts. To speak about a liberal education is the same as to speak about education in the arts and sciences. Thus the humanities, humane studies, are only part of a liberal arts education; the other part consists in the quantitative studies, mathematics and the natural sciences.

That this contention is historically true is easily seen from the time of the Greeks when Aristotle wrote not only on poetry and rhetoric, and spoke definitively on laws of grammar and logic, but was also the father in many lines of nature study and of the study of the human body, nature's wonder. He pondered the physical world and universe, the soul and its thought and will, human society and ethical conduct, and the Supreme Being. Even Plato, more literary and idealistic than Aristotle, was not only a humanist but also a mathematician, as were many of his followers. The balance of the trivium and quadrivium, exemplifying moderation in all things, was often remarkable in Greece. In Rome, however, the balance fell off, and if Romanitas had science, it might not have perished; but with a Greek genius for the real observation of nature, cataloguing of fact, and venture on hypothesis, it would have ceased to be Romanitas. Its own genius was rule and law. This is bequeathed to the newborn Church.

The lack of science, therefore, in the early Middle Ages and before the Renaissance of the twelfth century, was not Christian but Roman. Christian vitality was as ready to assimilate Greek science fed to it by the Arabs as it was to make its own the Roman sense of order. This Renaissance of the twelfth century, its inherited and even creative science has been revealed with sufficient fullness by the work of Charles Homer Haskins, Lynn Thorndike, and Christopher Dawson. The sources of modern science are medieval as well as Greek, St. Thomas in particular contributing to empirical method by the place he assigns in knowledge to sense observation and material being. The more immediate genesis of modern science, which is not dealt with here, receives nevertheless the best commentary of its value and rapidity from the actual stage of scientific progress dazzling the eyes of the living.

Modern science is the modern subject of the quadrivium. Scientific knowledge depends less on history than does literature and philosophy. Boyle's law, that the volume of gas varies inversely with the pressure, does not need the personalized expression of Shakespeare's "coil of mortal care" to make it a law or to make it intelligible. 

Contrary to the "Great Books" system at St. John's, mathematics and science need not emphasize historical genesis, but can specialize in modern syntheses and experiment with to-day's apparatus. Laboratory work and mathematical problems make for accurate observation, orderly procedure, careful classification, and justified conclusion. These are benefits from the study of the sciences besides the knowledge of nature and vocational and professional preparation. Without the quadrivium, the liberal arts abandon their historical inclusion of both the arts and sciences; they become less qualitative when they cease to be quantitative, because they know less about God and man when they forget nature.

If it is understood that the quadrivium as well as the trivium is historically essential to the liberal arts, and that therefore the modern scientist can advocate a liberal education, and that a liberally educated man can and should advance the natural sciences, a second historical fact concerning the liberal arts can be noted. This fact concerns the difficult point of the relationship of mental training and character training. It can be said without hesitation that mental training is the immediate end of a liberal education. A liberal education aims primarily, as Cardinal Newman would teach us, at mental training, which means the ready ability of a vigorous mind as well as a balanced fund of knowledge. In other words, mental training does not merely mean a keen intellect but also 

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There must be something rottenly wrong with education itself. So many people have wonderful children and all the grown-up people are such duds. Chesterton

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The only dominating influence in the school and the college must be that of truth. Maritain

a content of truth, with a good grasp of essential reality, God, man and nature. The liberal arts include, therefore, science and nature study, and also the study of man in the humanities, literature and philosophy. That basic and liberal theology must underlie education in the trivium and the quadrivium goes without saying, for God is the creator of both man and nature, and the ultimate causality and finality of man and nature must be investigated. Now such an investigation is essentially theology.

But even with such an understanding of mental training as including both content, and the ability to use such content, the relationship to will training and character training is not yet fully clear. Seneca tells us that the liberal arts do not give virtue, but prepare the mind to receive virtue. They give good ideals and broad experience, as is evidenced in history and literature. But besides these good ideals, which the will is still free to resist, character training, the formation of good moral habits and the aid of divine grace must be considered.

The question of the relationship of a liberal education to character training, to the good of the whole man, his final destiny, is most profoundly treated in Cardinal Newman's essay on The Idea of a University. "Knowledge is an end in itself," but it is not man's end. Knowledge must be an instrument of virtue. The higher education goes, the closer must be the Church, because the benefits of a liberal education are the most excellent in the line of human achievement and yet are the most capable of perversion. To a liberal education must be added a moral education. That is why the Church founded universities. The great mother universities of the West are Christian and the idea of a university is Christian.

When once it is realized that the high attainment of liberal culture is the greatest in the line of human endeavor, it can readily be seen that it is important to realize the relationship of such mental culture to sanctity. Mental culture can exist with or without sanctity, as in St. Basil or in Julian the Apostate, who went to the same school, or in the many litterateurs and savants, whom Newman notes are more inclined to indifference in religion than to the practice of religion. This is because they make knowledge not only an immediate end in itself as fulfilling the needs of the intellect, but also an ultimate end in itself as fulfilling the needs of the whole man; whereas the whole man must not only know God but love Him. The relationship of liberal culture to sanctity is the most important point discussed by Newman in his Idea of a University and he most clearly shows that knowledge must be intended for the good of the whole man and that faith fulfills knowledge and does not frustrate it, and that sanctity must make knowledge real, and turn it into wisdom.

A third fact of history concerning the liberal arts is that the basically human idea of self activity is thoroughly Christian and is not a new discovery, as we might be led by some writers to believe. In confirmation of this statement, it will be helpful, perhaps, just to quote three passages from representatives of Christianity, bridging centuries of time. As for St. Augustine:

We are led to learning in two ways: by reason and by authority. Authority is first in time, reason is first in importance. For it is one thing to proceed in doing, and another to esteem in desire. And thus, though authority seems more healthful for the unlearned many, reason excels in the cultured . . . And those who are content with authority alone, and expend their efforts on good morals and holy desires, condemning the liberal arts or not being up to them, I do not see how they can be really happy among mortal men, though I believe with unshakable faith that they will be free and happy to the greatest extent in the next life, who have lived best here.

St. Augustine develops to almost embarassing [sic] length his explanation of what he means by the exercise of the mental abilities, "to exercise the soul and for the student to sharpen the keenness of his mental vision" by the self-activity of his own reason.

St. Thomas Aquinas compares the teaching and learning process to the work of a physician:

Just as a person may be cured in a twofold manner through the operation of nature alone or through nature with the aid of medicine, so there is a twofold manner of acquiring knowledge, the one when the natural reason of itself comes to a knowledge of the unknown, which is called discovery, the other when someone extrinsically gives aid to the natural reason, which is called instruction.

 Discovery is the higher process, since it requires more native genius, but instruction excels in that the teacher has the knowledge as a whole and explicitly, and "can lead to knowledge more quickly and easily than anyone can be led by himself," whereas the pupil "knows the principles of knowledge only in generality." The verbal and oral symbols of books and of teaching are, moreover, closer to the mind, as having already come from thought and reasoning, whereas the student's own labor would be endless without the work of other men. 

Knowledge is therefore inductive, psychological and maieutic, as well as deductive, logical and authoritative. In either case it must be applied and digested. The benefits of both types of knowledge would be endangered by over-emphasis on either. What the student discovers for himself will last longer because of a greater association of phantasms and experience. Even when the teacher has to take the lead, since the student cannot do all, the presentation should be clear, vivid and associated with the student's own work.

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A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral. I shall not fret about the loam if somewhere in it a seed lies buried. The seed will drain the loam and the wheat will blaze. [Antoine de] St. Exupery

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It must never be forgotten that the subject of Christian education is man whole and entire, soul united to body in unity of nature, with all his faculties natural and supernatural . . . man, therefore, fallen from his original estate, but redeemed by Christ and restored to the supernatural condition of adopted son of God. Pius XI

In the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum, self-activity, as stated by a late Father General, is essential to the spirit and method of Jesuit teaching. This statement of Father Martin in 1893 only repeats the "exercise one's self," daily practice of speaking and writing, and the development of the talents, so often mentioned in the Ratio. This self-activity applies not only to knowledge, but also to virtue, for one must "learn along with letters the habits worthy of Christians."

It is interesting to approach the study of the liberal arts from a historical angle. The collective thinking of great men can be wrong, but it is not often wrong. When they tell us that the study of God, man and nature must be used for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, they speak true. They lead us to the most notably human activities, namely, those exercised and manifested in liberal culture.

Science is part of liberal culture, and grows with it. Character can be aided by liberal culture, when such culture is acquired by men of good will. But liberal culture is such a valuable weapon that one needs to be closer to God to use it right. Then his mental power exercises itself for the good of the human race, and the atomic age can dawn for human good.

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Source: John E. Wise, SJ, "Liberal Education: Three Facts of History Concerning the Liberal Arts," Georgetown University Alumni Magazine 1, no. 3 (Spring 1948): 8–10.

Sr. Mary Ruth, "The Curriculum of the Catholic Woman's College in Relation to the Problems of Modern Life" (1916)

 [106] The first step in defining what the woman's college ought to do is to state its primary aims, because they should direct us in the choice of the various subjects of study. The nature of the means, which in the present educational problem is the curriculum, is largely determined by the nature of the purpose to be attained. Social and industrial changes are making great demands upon the college for suitable preparation for life. The striking lack of educational standards by which the effectiveness of college training is judged, urges a consideration of what is the fundamental task of the woman's college.

Christianity has lost much of its vitality in the world since it has been taught through books. In the olden time when knowledge of Our Lord, of His Heavenly Father, and of His Blessed Mother, were taught by word of mouth and by mystery plays, God and His saints were very real to their followers who willingly, even gladly, suffered all things to prove their love of [107] Him. Again, in the olden time when morals were taught by word of mouth, by example, and by morality plays, all intimately related to God the Creator and Saviour [sic] and sanctifier of men, the priests and other teachers, whether in the missionary field, or at home among their own people, even though according to modern standards quite unlearned in science and art, were able to lift themselves and their followers to higher and higher planes of Christian life and civilization. Since we have undertaken to make the knowledge of God an academic subject, however, knowledge of Him has become in great measure memorized statements that have little or no influence upon our daily lives. To a large proportion of civilized men, Christ is a myth like William Tell. To-day [sic] because the love of God no longer dominates men's lives, we have a world war, nations battling against nations, and the spectacle of the powerful ruler of a so-called Christian nation decorating a man for writing a hideous "Chant of Hate."

The first aim, then , of the woman's college is to make its students real Christians; lovers and followers of a real Christ. Both consciously and unconsciously we imitate those whom we love; we do what we think will please them, and we develop along the lines of their development, and grow to become like them. Christ's life on earth was a life of love and service of man. If our students love Christ, they, consciously or unconsciously imitating Him, will also love and be eager to serve those with whom they associate in their daily lives, not only their families, but their communities, and thus their country. While the woman's college is inspiring its students with a love of Our Lord and of His Blessed Mother and the saints, it will make sure in their minds and hearts the relation between that love and the love of His children and the desire to serve Him through serving them.

The second aim of a Catholic woman's college, therefore, is to fit its students to serve God through serving the community in which they live. This directs our attention to the vocational aspect of education which at the present time is the dominant feature of all educational discussion. In the Catholic woman's college this is a vocational problem correlated in no way with [108] the training for a money-making occupation; rather it is the problem of giving preparation for the life that the student will lead after she leaves college, and making that lifework the basis of her preparation. The real vocational motive is to be construed as one which stimulates and enables the student to acquire not only the knowledge for, but the art of living the purposeful life which she thinks she is fitted by capacity and taste to lead after her college course is finished, thereby making her a contributing member of society and giving her a positive value in the social equation. the power of a worthy purpose to create and maintain interest and to stimulate study, is of supreme importance in college as in high school and, indeed, in all education. The desire for preparedness to meet one's life-task is the best stimulus to seek the requisite training for it.

The term, problems of modern life, stamps the subject of our discussion as a sociological question, and requires an understanding and an appreciation of present conditions of society. Upon a surface view we are immediately confronted with a multitude of problems of modern living, each of which has its claims. But back of them all, because it lies at the basis of all, and towering above them all, is the vitally important problem of the home. It needs no argument to establish this thesis. What everyone agrees to needs no discussion. Upon the home, its spirit and training, depend those fundamental attitudes of a man or woman that control all the relations of life.

In order that this Section of the Catholic Educational Association may be a constructive force in the educational betterment of our Catholic women's colleges, the vital topic, the relation of the curriculum of the Catholic woman's colleges to the problems of modern life, has been proposed for our discussion. We can do little more in the first meeting than to bring the subject before the consideration of our college teachers for an analysis of conditions, with the hope of making it a matter of continuous study, observation, experiment and discussion, to be checked by follow-up work which should judge of the value of the education by its functioning in later life; that is, by the degree of success attained by our students, measured by their own standards of ethics. Finally, in order to make the study widely profitable, [109] we should make reports of our findings, giving to all the benefit of the experience of each. Then shall we awaken inquiry into the relative values of subjects of the curriculum to equip the college young woman for the efficient home, and stimulate experiment to discover these values. Then also shall we realize the potentiality of this Section of the Association as an agency in constructing an educational plan to conserve the ideals of the home, to raise those ideals to a higher level and to furnish training in household management, thus to safeguard the home by laying under contribution to that end the intellectual and ethical instruments of the curriculum.

The far-reaching industrial and social changes of the nineteenth century brought in their train momentous changes which have affected no institution so profoundly as the home. In less than thirty years new machinery has virtually revolutionized industrial methods, removing one industry after another to the factory, until at the present time nearly all the clothing is made in the factory, the tailor shop, or the modiste-studio; much of the food is prepared in the packing house, the canning-factory, the bakery, and the delicatessen store. Instead of knitting the stockings and making the dresses and aprons at the family fireside, the woman of the house places the order, and lo! the ready-made garment is at the door. Instead of making the bread, she, or her maid telephones and the bread is delivered fresh for dinner. Instead of moulding [sic] candles, she touches a button and the carbon filaments radiate light. There is no escaping the fact that physical conditions affect and greatly modify human relations and the sense of spiritual obligations. When food and clothing were prepared in the home, the members of the family were identified with the various processes and were associated in the work. This identity of aim and cooperation of service was the basis of organization upon which the solidarity of the home depended. The home was the industrial unit. Stern necessity was the creator and the custodian of the home spirit. Its compelling force in keeping the members of the common tasks, working in common and sharing in common, was effective in building deep relationships of the home and developing the [110] altruistic ideals, leading selfish human nature to exercise itself in unselfishness, thereby preparing itself for social obligations.

The principle of solidarity is fundamental to society. There can be no national spirit, no world spirit, without the loyalty which depends for its vitality upon the tap-root of solidarity. This root, because those primary relationship which are its essence can be formed only during the plastic years of childhood, must have its beginning in the home.

It cannot be expected that there will be any reversion to the old industrial system. The old-time home with its numerous industries will never return. More of its already nearly depleted activities will be taken over by the factories. A change and readjustment to the new conditions is inevitable. The relationships of the family must be strengthened by some other means than work. We must find some substitute for work to conserve the home as the center where may be formed those ties of affection which are the sources of the deepest joys of life. Dr. Andrews says in Education for the Home:

"Strength and satisfaction in the home relationships form a prime problem. The breaking down of the family bond is to be overcome by strengthening that bond, by enriching the home experience of the individual, child and adult alike. . . . Our education for the home will be a sorry thing indeed if it concerns simply the household arts of cooking, sewing, and household care unless it teaches us the art of 'family building', of home-making, of living in families in such ways as to bring increasing personal satisfaction as the years go."[1]

The "enrichment of home experience" in the sense of cementing family bonds was furnished by the mutual service required in providing the comforts of life. There is a deep truth in Pestalozzi's statement, "It is the social side of parental solicitude that makes environmental influences themselves of spiritual value, contributing thereby to the higher intellectual and emotional life. The stocking which the mother knits before her son's eyes has a deeper significance in his education than the one he buys at the shop or puts on without knowing where it came from."[2] [111] This concrete expression of the value of work in moulding the child's deepest sentiments is an argument for some other agency in the absence of work as a substitute to develop unselfish family relationships.

The present crisis in the decadence of the home tests our capacity to adapt the curriculum and training to the new conditions. The new factor to reckon with is the leisure of the members of the family. Practically, for both men and women, the hours of leisure have been doubled. This has been done for women by the transfer of industries and by fixing the maximum number of hours which women may work in stores and factories. The hours of men have been proportionally shortened. The sixteen-hour day has been shortened to an eight-hour day. The office hours from nine o'clock until five leave long stretches of leisure. Whether we like it or not, the solution of the problem lies in enriching the home experience, by organizing the leisure of the home and making it by its very attractiveness a compelling force to accomplish the solidarity of the home. It may not have the same unifying effectiveness as work. It is a less tangible, less insistent influence, and therefore will require finer art and more careful preparation on the part of the home-makers to make it an integrating force. There is a daily challenge to the woman of the home to make it an enriching experience.

"The home of the future must be cultured. . . . The companionship in the work of their hands that husband and wife have lost, they must find again in the cultivation of their minds and hearts. The home of the future must breathe a charm so potent that it will gather to its bosom each evening the dispersed and weary toilers of the day. The home of the future must be the sanctuary of life and the dwelling-place of love; the mind must find in it room to grow in all the realities of truth and beauty; its atmosphere must be that of refinement and culture; beauty must cover it with her mantle and courage must protect it with his shield. . . . Woman must preserve the home of the future. She must preserve in it the sacred fires of religion and culture. Through it she must save man from materialism and from the worship of the golden calf. She must build a home in which he will find rest from his toil, consolation in his sorrow, strength to battle with temptations, courage in the midst of disaster, and companionship in the highest aspirations [112] of his soul," says Dr. T. E. Shields, in The Education of Our Girls.[3] 

 These words written in 1907 have application to-day not less than a decade ago. This consideration invests leisure with extraordinary importance as a constructive force of society. "The girl problem or the boy problem is inherently a leisure-time problem," says Montague Gammon.[4] What inference must we make as to our duty in this vitally important matter?

Our home-makers must catch the purpose and appreciate the value of leisure in saving the home. To develop in young women a consciousness of their duty toward the home, to see and to use the golden opportunity that leisure offers them to make the home a center of happiness, to help them to accomplish in some measure the vital union of theory and practice in the fine art of living, this is our basis of orientation. Dr. Andrews says, "A new vocational emphasis is in the older education as well as in the education called vocational, and the home is to be one of the beneficiaries of this changed point of view."[5] Home must be such a pleasant place that it will lay hold upon the affection and loyalty of every member of the family. It should compete successfully with the club house, the dance hall, the billiard room, the vaudeville theatre [sic], and the amusement park. The home should be so attractive that when the man of the house leaves his office or place of business, he will take the most direct way to reach it, and the adolescent boy and girl will from pure choice spend their evenings in the family circle. The attitude of the members of the family toward their home is a reasonable basis for the evaluation of its potency as a constructive force in their lives. To strengthen home-mindedness then, is the vital task that lies before us. It is the problem that the Catholic woman's college should address itself to, and readjust the curriculum so that the various subjects with their resources and interests may develop in the students with appropriate attitude and ideals. The present group system which obtains generally in the college and regulates the course of a student [113] makes easy the conditions of such an achievement. Indeed Dr. A. W. Harris, ex-president of Northwestern University, says, "Of a hundred girls more than eighty will become home-makers; they constitute so large a group with a common life business that special studies and methods adapted to their needs may fairly be required of all."[6] The selection of studies to attain this aim should hold high place in our purposes and be the object of our best thinking and investigation. Would that an educational prophet might arise and name the subjects which would contribute most effectively to this end! The movement for scientific measurement of educational results is slowly gaining ground and it is challenging the methods of education; but even though we had reliable standards of measurement, anything like a scientific rating in the measurement of training for home-making could be made only after the lapse of years.

The results of the present education as given in the woman's college shows that woman has been educated away from the home. Miss Addams says, "Modern education recognizes woman quite apart from family or society claims, and gives her the training which for many years has been successful for highly developing a man's individuality and forcing his powers for independent action."[7] The woman's college has not emphasized the conservation and enrichment of home life. Instead of stressing the fine values of home companionship, it has emphasized the possibilities of community service, woman's opportunities of club membership, and the obligations of a wide social nature, with the result that many women have acquired a false perspective of their duties. The woman's college has pointed with pride to the fact that its entrance requirements were the same as those of men's colleges. The Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1916 shows that there are eighty-four colleges with an attendance of 19,179 undergraduates to which men are not admitted. This does not exhaust the number of such colleges, as there are some not rated in this report. They have all modeled their curriculum closely upon that of men's colleges.

Inasmuch as women perform different functions from men, [114] it is logical that some preparation be made for the tasks that fall to their lot. So far we have given very little attention to working out lines of distinct instruction especially adapted to woman and her God-given work in the home. The Association of Inter-Collegiate Alumnae have felt the need of such adjustment, and at their convention in New York in 1911, the principal subject of discussion was the possibility of adding to the curriculum subjects of special value to women. Hygiene, biology, and sociology were the subjects in greatest favor. It requires no extended study to see that we must do more than merely train the intellect. Our aim is not to educate the students to find delight in reading Browning in solitude. The study of higher mathematics and an analytic study of the Greek dramatists are not best adapted to develop that quality of character which is most needed in home-making. For the woman in the home, culture is not to be valued as a personal acquisition as such, but merely as a development of her personality to make her effective in the service of others.

Socialization of education is a new term injected into the educational vocabulary. The changes in the curriculum of schools indicate a shifting of emphasis from knowledge in itself to its purpose in terms of group interest and group development, and mutual interrelations of the group. Nowhere has this principle greater application than in preparing our students for future homes. A measurement of the success of her college education, therefore, is not the measure of her capacity for happiness; rather it is the measure of how far she actualizes the fine, rare ideals of womanhood in the home. Dr. Andrews says, "The home as a conservative institution has been slow to receive educational attention, but its vital interests make education for the home second to none in importance." To formulate a curriculum with such an objective must from the nature of the case be a long task. It is very difficult to evaluate subjects. We know that the finest values elude all measurement. We cannot conclude that each subject of the curriculum has a specific service as a "life value." Such an inference Mr. Van Piper says would be like saying that, "If a course in mathematics is a prerequisite for a given course in physics, then [115] each chapter in mathematics is a prerequisite for some corresponding chapter in physics. Everybody knows there is never any such correlation of part to part. . . . There would be much essential matter in the mathematics which could not be sanely omitted, yet which would find no specific application in the physics proper. In a precisely  parallel way there may easily be phases in a preparatory training school which still are not, as such, anticipatory of any corresponding demands in adult life."[8]

There is no way of arriving at a determination of the "life values" of different studies. It is difficult to determine the value of those studies which have been tried out in the curriculum for ages; new subjects will have to be tried out and their effects noted in the efficiency of the real home-maker. Moreover, all the other subjects, however well planned, are inadequate without vital religion which should be both the root and the flower of the curriculum. Faith in God the Creator, and trust in His providence whereby He feeds and clothes and shelters His children and "opens His hand to supply the wants of every living creature," and a personal love of our Divine Saviour Who is our model of loving service, will inspire the spirit of loving service and self-devotion. True religion begets character. Let pulsating, practical religion permeate the daily life of the students and it will inspire them to serve others. The subjects of the curriculum will equip them to execute that which religion prompts them to do.

One important principle which is fast gaining ground is that there should be correlation between the curriculum and the normal experience of the student. Education must be brought into intimate relation with life in the twofold aspect of work and leisure, both of which should be put on an educational basis. Economy and efficiency of effort which is the objective of training in household management, contributes to the leisure which we have seen is to be used purposefully to enrich the home. The woman of the future must appreciate the value of leisure and employ it systematically for moral ends. Broadly [116] speaking, the equipment of the home-maker has a twofold aspect, practical and cultural, or according to Dr. Andrews' distinction, household management and home-making. The ends are efficiency and cultured personality. The home-maker should know how to organize household activities. Mrs. Willard, who discovered domestic economy as a subject of instruction, said, "It is believed that housewifery might be greatly improved by being taught, not only in practice, but in theory. There are right ways of performing its various operations, and there are reasons why those ways are right." Both the facts and the principles of household management the home-maker should know. This scientific knowledge will furnish economy and efficiency of effort, thereby increasing the leisure time. Denatured drudgery is a significant term which connotes both the lessening of the work and the glorifying it with the home-making motive.

Home economics, therefore, should occupy a large place in the differential curriculum planned for the home-maker. This is a complex, comprehensive subject including a wide range of material and its courses of instruction should be both technical and cultural. It is defined by the American Home Economics Association, Baltimore, Md., [sic] as the study of the economic, sanitary, and aesthetic aspects of food, clothing, and shelter as connected with their selection, preparation, and use by the family in the home, or by other groups of people. It lays under contribution the subjects of art, history, anthropology, sociology, aesthetics, economics, physiology, hygiene, mathematics, physics, and biology.[9] This subject should be placed on an equality with any science, political or social, and given a dignity and an importance accorded to any of the sciences. It should give the student an acquaintance with the rational ways of conducting the household; cultivate good taste and judgment of clothing values, artistic and economic; it should give such training as would guarantee freedom from such a dismal domestic failure as "Mrs. Hamlyn, who, with an A. M. from the State University, was always in trouble with her servants; the meals were irregular [117]; the table not appetizing; her house in disorder and her children absolutely undisciplined," according to Dr. Shields.[10]

We should stress with emphasis the social sciences, and stress equally the importance of their philosophical principles being in accord with the principles of faith. According to Dr. Andrews's judgment, sociology should be studied from a threefold view-point [sic]: (a) General sociology, giving the origin and development of civilization and the structure and function of present institutions; (b) Domestic sociology, dealing specifically with the origin, development, structure and functions of the family and the home as a human institution; (c) A study of the practical movement for general social betterment. A study of sociology, however, will not create or nourish the spirit which appreciates those finer, rarer interests of the home, but it will make the student understand the significance of the courses in home economics in their relation to modern problems, and the young woman who understands the home in relation to the larger life of which it is a part, will approach all problems of home economics with a deeper appreciation of their connection with the realities of life. Home economics must get its point of view from sociology. The center of interest of sociology is the relation of individuals to each other. This adjustment of personal relation depends chiefly upon spiritual conditions. Habits, purposes, and ideals of life affect profoundly these relations. This fact makes apparent the value of psychology in the curriculum. If we could make home economics a branch of applied psychology with the creation of an ideal home and family as its great purpose, the study would give not only academic instruction and expansion of mental outlook, but it would furnish an insight into experience to see the interrelations of physical problems with the spiritual aspects of human life.

A basis of Catholic philosophy is essential in the curriculum of the Catholic woman's college. We look to religion for the Christian ideal, and the inspiration and grace to advance toward it. Moreover, philosophical principles may be appreciated with [118] precision and yet be ineffective as a practical guide to conduct. Morality depends upon good will rather than upon knowledge, yet the moral nature is rational and requires a rational account of duty. Especially is a grasp of the underlying principles of true philosophy necessary to point out the fallacies in the theories proposed by some secular philanthropists and modern sociologists, between which and the principles of Catholicism there is "an essential and irreconcilable antagonism." From the field of philosophy it is practicable to derive a great deal of material vitally helpful to the Catholic woman's college alumna, yet it is important to keep insistently in consciousness the fact that we are preparing her to safeguard the home, not to take the chair of philosophy in college. A study of logic will help her to think correctly. A course in Introduction to Philosophy is recommended to give an acquaintance with the principles of scholastic philosophy, and as far as may be accomplished to cultivate the power of philosophical criticism. This is especially important in view of the widespread materialistic philosophy which interprets all human living in economic terms, the logical outcome of which we are reaping in the present world war [NB: WWI]. The aim here should not be to give the student complete knowledge of the evolution of idealism from Descartes to Hegel, nor of empiricism from Bacon to Mill, nor of pragmatism, as purely a matter of philosophical knowledge, but to give her an insight into the essential philosophical truths that she may be able to discover the principles underlying the method of a social movement and judge of its truth or falsity.

The study of ethics is of paramount importance. Especially is this true at the present time when the prevalent ethical standard is the humanitarian standard, and altruism and social efficiency are regarded as ends in themselves, and social welfare, as the end of conduct from which all moral values are derived. It is evident that to discover the principles of humanitarianism in its methods of social service, which are popular and appealing and to a great degree praiseworthy, a knowledge and an appreciation of the grounds of moral obligation and of the essential importance of right motives are necessary. But the Catholic woman must discriminate between the system of morality based [119] on the ideal of the service of humanity and the system that recognizes that the universal order is the expression of the divine will to which the individual is obliged to conform his conduct, and that one essential factor of his conduct is the service he owes his neighbor. Moreover, with the increasing worldliness and unrestrained love of pleasure, the trend of the time toward the standard of utilitarianism as the determinant of moral values, and toward hedonism which ignores all moral values, it is important to know the true criterion of conduct; to see that although morality has its independent root in the rational nature, yet ultimately it has the same source as religion; namely, the Infinite Good; that both are connected with the end of man and that the sphere of each is penetrated by the principles of the other.

At the present time when our country should be aglow with patriotic fervor, the study of Christian ethics will give the scientific basis of patriotism and show that it is a virtue and a sacred duty. Here we shall find the principle calling upon the Catholic woman to make the sacrifices which the present crisis requires; to simplify her way of life; to do without luxuries, even to deprive herself of daily comforts, and to accept all the privations that she may have to endure, and thus become a sharer of the soldier's sacrifice. To be specific: To encourage the young woman to economize in the preparation of food and to prevent all household waste (here we note the close correlation between ethics and household economics); to be willing to stifle the instinct to conform to fashion even to wearing a gown of last year's style; to substitute simple social functions for the elaborate receptions and theatre parties; in a word, to forego every superfluity, imbued as she should be with the feeling that it is the duty of every woman to do all in her power to help her brother called to the front.

In the forefront of subjects that furnish mental culture are the foreign languages. The tendency of the current educational scheme away from Greek is manifested widely. Within the last few years there has been a shift of emphasis also from the study of Latin. Meanwhile, the discussion regarding the theory of general discipline continues. Besides the value of whatever [120] "transfer" of general powers which does take place, the study of Latin is valuable as a means of preparation for the acquisition of a Romance language, as well as for its direct bearing upon the study of English. Prof. A. F. Lange, dean of the School of Education, University of California, says, "Just because it is so radical in the specific disciplines it can be made to furnish (the results of which are transferable, at least to things that are human), Latin as an educational means has virtues that other subjects have not." In addition to this two-fold reason of "general" and "specific disciplines" is the value of the content of the Latin masterpieces studied. Archbishop Spalding says, "The educational value of classics does not lie so much in the Greek and Latin languages as in the type of mind, the sense of proportion and beauty, the heroic temper, the philosophic mood, the keen relish for high enterprise, and the joyful love of life which they make known to us." Granted that in this factor the Latin classics are greatly surpassed by the Greek, yet the possibilities in this regard inherent in the study of the language form an additional reason why we would retain the Latin in the curriculum of the woman's college. The modern languages enjoy an increasing popularity as subjects which will function in the daily life. Either French or German should be a part of the education of every college alumna; she should have not only a reading knowledge, but a certain conversational facility in the language.

For the development of the intellectual and aesthetic quality of mind, we would emphasize the liberalizing value of literature with the caution to avoid academic-mindedness. The tendency has been to intellectualize everything taught in order that the student might know for the sake of knowing. Perhaps there has been too little conscious attempt to teach this subject in a manner that emphasizes and fixes in the student's mind right attitudes towards life and to develop fine appreciation and high ideals of womanhood. This will require the study of literary embodiments of their ideals.

History which we have been wont to rank next to literature as a culture study, is being displaced in a measure by the social sciences on the plea that according to present standards it is [121] overloaded with material which is not of substantial worth in realizing the present aim of education. The Catholic woman's college, however, cannot afford to lessen the emphasis upon the history of the Christian centuries.

Music should be included in the curriculum, not so much to enable the home-maker to furnish beautiful music as means of entertainment; the victrola [NB: brand of wind-up phonograph; also generally refers to any wind-up phonograph] of to-day enables us to hear the pianist's conception executed perfectly; to hear Godowski, not as Godowski really plays, but better,—as Godowski would wish to play, by enabling him to become his own best critic and to correct his own execution. The study of music is most valuable for its cultural effect. For the same reason art should be studied. The culture value of both music and art in developing appreciation of the fine arts and in cultivating the emotional side of one's nature is preeminently high. In adding to the power of the rational enjoyment of leisure they are significant studies.

Emphasis should be given especially to the cultivation of the speaking voice, both for its effect upon others and for its reaction upon one's own state of mind. A querulous voice is a powerful excitant of domestic scenes. On the other hand, a cultivated voice under control has a value that would be difficult to exaggerate. It acts effectively upon others and reacts upon one's self. Mr. Arnold Bennett says in his volume, The Human Machine, that ninety-nine per cent of all daily friction is caused by mere tone of voice. "It is a curious thing that an agreeable tone artificially and deliberately adopted will influence the mental attitude almost as much as the mental attitude will influence the tone. If you honestly feel resentful against some one, but having understood the foolishness of fury, intentionally mask your fury under a persuasive tone, your fury will at once begin to abate." It is of supreme importance that the curriculum should offer an opportunity for this element of cultural equipment.

For a large number of our students, the greatest value of their college education should come from both increased knowledge and deepened sympathy and insight. The aim is not to make literati, but to encourage the students to combine with [122] school activities and social experience the art of home-making and an appreciation of womanly ideals. Socialization of the student is the educational watchword of to-day; that is, to give the student the view that right conduct rather than knowledge is the ultimate aim of education.

The policy of the Catholic woman's college in the solution of this radically vital problem of modern life, the safeguarding of the home, reflects the spirit and judgment of the Catholic Church. It should stress the cultivation of that phase of college life both in curricular studies and in extra curricular activities which is best fitted to develop and strengthen the personal life which Dr. Andrews says "education for the home is ultimately to furnish." Our students should be of the intellectual-moral êlite [sic]. Historically, culture has meant that body of knowledge which individuals use in their leisure. We would not reconstruct the concept, but we would effect a rapprochement between the college curriculum and the normal experience so that the studies will function in the daily lives of the students from the standpoint of our present social organization, the basis of which is the home. Adapting the Catholic woman's college to the needs of its students and readjusting it to present conditions, will be the sign and the expression of our appreciation of, and our response to, the needs of present environment.

To summarize: The great problem of modern life is the saving of the home. As a real home, it is going and partly gone. The "downfall of the home" is a current theme of discussion. In the past, the home was preserved by the solidarity that work creates, but work has been greatly eliminated, and even the hours of men's labors are shortened by half. Therefore, the solidarity of the home as created and preserved by work is gone. Solidarity of another kind is the solution of the problem. What solidarity? There is only one—the solidarity of an organized leisure. If woman is to be a home-maker, the enrichment of the home by the systematic use of leisure becomes her real life-career. How to organize leisure is the heart of our problem. Woman must be educated, not to find her delight as a solitary with her books as her best companions, but in the center of the home where she must make herself and her home [123] so attractive as to charm the home folk; so that her husband will hasten from his place of business and her sons and daughters will hasten from school, all to join the home-circle. Are we educating our students for that at present? Will Greek and higher mathematics train the woman for this? We are educating woman away from the home. Culture has for its aim, or rather the school has for its aim in giving culture, to fit woman to shine in public, to lead in club work, and to take part in platform speaking. We, of the Catholic woman's college, know our aim. We must educate woman for organized leisure. How? It will take a long time to work out the system. The method is as yet only tentative, but we must keep the aim steadily in view; work and try out plans, and as far as they succeed, adopt them, mindful all the time that the inspiration of the best initiative and the dynamic of that self-sacrifice and devotion without which home would be but a hostelry, is the spirit of religion which invests ordinary duties with an extraordinary dignity and which is the rootage [sic] and the fruitage of home life and of all worthy social life.

DISCUSSION

Mary A. Moloy, A. M., Ph. D., College of Saint Teresa, Winona, Minnesota: In appreciation of Sister Ruth's beautiful paper I will say that I sincerely trust that she outlines what may be possible in our women's colleges in the not too distant future.

In general, as far as graduates of schools go, undoubtedly eighty out of one hundred girls find their places in the home. With college graduates, however, it is different. From statistics gathered some years since from colleges granting degrees to women, we find that only thirty-three per cent of college women graduates find their place in the home. Can we at the present ignore the claims of the sixty-seven per cent who may wish to pursue work other than that bearing directly on the home?

We are not saying that this attitude of women pointing away from the home is as it should be. We merely see it as a condition with which we have to reckon. Women are restless in this generation. They are taking their places side by side with men in political, economic, sociological and pedagogical fields. We do not say that this is as it should be but the fact is not to be overlooked. If a young woman wishes to become a specialist in higher mathematics, in the classics or in history or sociology, is her ambition legitimate? Shall we let her go from our keeping [124] to seek the training she desires where the boldest and the saddest doctrines advanced in philosophy since the organization of the faculty of liberal arts are made part of her course?

Let us give her mathematics, the classics, history, even the professional courses in law and medicine, in the safe and holy atmosphere of the Catholic college. Let the mathematics, the classics, the science, be so full, so thorough, so advanced, that for the mere secular branches alone she can nowhere find them more thoroughly and carefully presented. Let us give her what she wishes of secular learning that is legitimate, and thus save her to the Catholic faith through the philosophy that she will learn from us to interpret correctly and in terms of eternal truth, her theory of science, her practice in sociology or her interpretation of history. This is quite in accord with the practice of the Church in all times. There has never been a legitimate demand on the part of men or women that she has not magnificently provided for.

It is the ultimate business of the Catholic college to educate women out of their restlessness back again into the home.

It has been said that the home is a vanishing institution, but we must change all this. The home has been turned out into the street and the paved road has invaded the cloister. But souls are to be saved by the hundreds and it is not a matter of supererogation but a sacred imperative duty to rescue the flower of our Catholic young womanhood from the education that will prove to be their undoing. We must bend every available energy to enable our young women to take their places side by side with the women of the times in every line of legitimate endeavor in which women are engaged. Let us not forget that in the first centuries of our era there were Christians in the very palaces of the Caesars and we know to what glorious purpose.

The Catholic college for women in America has a magnificent opportunity to regenerate the times. Can we afford to side-step the issue, be blind to its appeal and fail in the supreme work that as Catholic educators we are called upon to do?

Rev. J. H. Ryan, D. D., St. Mary-of-the-Woods College, Ind.: It would be difficult, indeed, to exaggerate the value of the learned and timely paper, "The Curriculum of the Catholic Woman's College and the Problems of Modern Life." The author not only appreciates the conditions existing in our colleges for women, but what is more important, possesses a vision of the future status of women in American society and of the means of preparing them for their work. She emphasizes two points which to my mind are of fundamental import. First, the Catholic woman's college is for the education of women—rather an obvious statement, yet one constantly lost sight of by educators. No one denies that women can follow, and very successfully, the courses outlined for men in college and university, but the question is not, can they, but ought they? It was a foolish pride which prompted educational authorities to lay [125] down identical courses for men and women, ignoring all the physiological and psychological differences between the sexes. Let us go back to what the ideal of the woman's college ought to be—a womanly woman. Secondly, the Catholic woman's college is Catholic; that is, its ideals, its methods, its spirit, are imbued with Catholic truth and tend to the production of ideal Catholic women. If the college is false to either of these ideals, its raison d'etre ceases then and there.

Before discussing in particular the curriculum of our women's colleges and its bearing on the problems which concern Catholic women to-day, a word of suggestion may not be out of place. There is altogether too much formality in our teaching; too much book work, note-taking, memorizing, and that especially in the cultural subjects. There is too little correlation of thought and action. Education must not be divorced from life; they are in reality one and the same thing, viewed from different angles. If there is one place where we would look for and expect dynamism in education it is in the colleges for women. Men readily throw off the evil effects of a formalistic training by contact with a vital, strenuous world, but the lives of women are more sheltered and guarded, and they have not the opportunities of so readily correcting false impressions absorbed during college days.

The author of the paper under discussion realizes the new orientation in woman's education. She demands, and for excellent reasons, that it be socialized more and more in order to meet the conditions and requirements of modern life. The industrialism of the last century has indeed wrought great changes in the home, and therefore in the lives of women with respect to the home. And not only have the old conceptions of the home been changed; the very outlook of women on life itself has been marvelously transformed. Women, and especially college women, do not look upon marriage to-day as the end-all of their existence. Statistics from secular colleges will bear out this statement. Unfortunately there are no statistics available for our Catholic women's colleges, though I see no reason why the same conclusion should not be true of them as well. Then, women to-day are becoming more and more independent economically. Over seventy-five per cent of the graduates of Catholic women's colleges go either into the professions or into business. In the majority of cases, it is true, this is merely temporary occupation. Industry, therefore, has not only changed the home; it has worked a revolution in women themselves and in their attitude toward life.

Woman's education ought to be socialized, but can that be done by the mere addition of "social studies" to the present curriculum? Will the super-imposition of sociology, political economy, domestic science, on cultural subjects, develop a woman capable of appreciating the needs of the times and of doing her part in meeting its demands on her? To my mind an altogether different emphasis is necessary. The home-making studies must not be dragged along as so many step-children; [126] they are real children, the heirs of the future. They must be stressed and emphasized. They must be given the place of honor in the curriculum. A new curriculum is so necessary as a change in emphasis, a reorganization of the old curriculum and a new correlation of its parts, with insistence placed on those subjects which will prepare our women not only "to make a living" as someone has said, "but also to make a life." This change would be vital, it is true, but not so radical as it might seem at first thought. An ideal curriculum would be one in which, during the freshman and sophomore years, social, scientific, and home-making studies would be in the ascendancy, not neglecting, however, the study of the languages. For example, a young woman, in addition to religion, English, and a language, might elect from the courses in logic, psychology, child-psychology, physiology, chemistry, biology, or domestic science, and care of children and the sick, during two years. This plan would also allow for the continued study during the whole college course of any subject, vocational or cultural, in which the student was interested. The freshman and sophomore years, therefore, would prepare a woman for her position in after-life, would teach her the subjects every woman ought to know, together with one or two courses which meet the demands of her individual talent or taste. The last two years ought to be divided between subjects which bear directly or indirectly on her future work, or which represent a secondary taste in the individual. In these latter years emphasis should be placed upon ethics, history, civics, and sociology. But someone may ask, "What about the cultural, what about the development of personality?" I answer that there is a culture of the sciences as well as a culture of art, or of history, or of literature. Culture is not a thing apart, is not a thing fastened on the mind; it is rather the flowering of qualities inherent in one's personality, which can be obtained by scientific courses as well as through the medium of language study.

Again, and this is a point not touched upon in the paper under discussion, in the process of socializing woman's education, great insistence must be placed upon the health of our students. It is manifestly and statistically false, that college life injures the health of women students. Four years of college have built up many a youthful body. In this matter of physical education, the college has a clear and distinct duty toward not only its students, but towards the State and the race as well. Army examining boards have been loud in their complaints of the physical deficiencies found in the mass of American men. Is the physical condition of our women any better? I think not. Gymnasium work should be made a curricular study in our colleges, and credit given for the same. Two hours of physical training weekly is little enough,—but this minimum ought to be exacted of every woman student. Whether physical training is to be more and more individualized, (and this is the present-day tendency), according to the special weaknesses and defects of each girl, or whether it is to take other directions, is a question that [127] may fairly be left to the faculty of each institution to solve. The necessity, however, of putting every convenience in the way of our women to make their bodies strong, healthy, and robust, is a duty which cannot be overlooked, and should not be shirked. For the woman of the future, a healthy body is as necessary as a sound mind.

Religion must hold first place in a Catholic college for women. A four years' course in Christian Doctrine, (this subject is vitally necessary, as so many of our young women matriculate from public high schools), Church history, Bible study, and ethics, taught in the manner and after the spirit noted by the author, cannot fail to produce lasting results. The atmosphere of our colleges, the lives of the instructors, are such that the translation of religion from theory to fact is constantly kept before the eyes and the minds of the student body in a manner not possible anywhere else. Let me bear my humble testimony to this fact, namely, that there is one thing in which our Catholic woman's college will never fail—in turning out strong, pure, upright, Catholic women.

The author mentions art and music as curricular helps in aiding women to meet the problems of modern life. Both art and music, it is true, have a professional value, but where their place is and should be in the socializing of female education, is difficult for me to perceive. I wish to voice a vigorous and emphatic protest against, not the retention of music and art in the curriculum of a woman's college, but against the undue prominence sometimes given to them, and especially to music. The following reasons prompt this assertion: First, they are of little or no practical value in after-life; secondly, the author mentions that mechanical inventions do better than any individual can ever hope to do; thirdly, they take up time, to the detriment both of the individual and of the college itself, which ought to be devoted to real college work. Were a college woman to attempt to carry "double music," voice culture, and one instrument,—entailing ten or twelve hours a week for instruction and practice, the result would be unfortunate and spell inefficiency. The curriculum of the present-day college is so full, as it stands, that one cannot afford to lose so many hours every week for music or art. To the difficulty, that our woman's colleges are not endowed, and therefore depend financially on music and art to meet the expenses of the institution as a whole, I have and know no reply. My sole contention is that neither the college curriculum nor the problems of modern life demand so much time as is now given to music and art.

In conclusion, may I thank the author for her illuminating paper, and publicly express my conviction that as long as we have such learned and devoted Sisters as she, teaching in our institutions, little or no fear need be had that our colleges are failing in their duty, either towards the present or coming generation of women.

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Footnotes:

1. U. S. Bureau of Education, Bulletin 1914, No. 36, p. 20

2. Educational Writings, edited by J. A. Green, Views and Experiences, p. 162

3. P. 280.

4. Report of the Com. of Education 1916, p. 447

5. Op. cit. p. 7

6. "The Future Education of Women," The Youth's Companion, May 31, 1917

7. Democracy and Social Ethics, p. 83

8. School and Society, "On Radicalism in Education," May 5, 1917, p. 524

9. Cf. Syllabus of Home Economics, 1913

10. The Education of Our Girls, p. 210-21

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Source: Sister Mary Ruth, OSD, "The Curriculum of the Catholic Woman's College in Relation to the Problems of Modern Life," Catholic Educational Association Bulletin 14, no. 1 (Nov. 1917): 106–127.

John A. O'Brien, "Causes of Catholic Leakage" (1932)

[Much of this essay could have been written very recently.]

[412] To the Editor, The Ecclesiastical Review.

The discussion of Catholic leakage in the December issue of the Review has occasioned widespread interest and stimulated a discussion from which certain conclusions would now seem to emerge. (1) The statistics of The Official Catholic Directory, not only in regard to population but also in regard to baptisms and deaths, are apparently so "unbelievably untrustworthy" as to afford no reliable basis for the determination of the gain or loss of the Catholic population for the year 1930. (2) It follows, therefore, that the basis for the estimated loss of half a million for the year 1930, is undermined. While Dr. Ross writing in The Commonweal, 17 February, 1932, seems to contend that the essential framework of his statistical computations still stands, the evidence presented by both Dr. Shaughnessy and Fr. Bernarding is sufficient to shake the confidence of the writer in the reliability of any conclusion based on the figures of the Directory.

It is probably a matter of astonishment to most priests, as it is to the writer, to discover as a result of the excellent studies of Fr. Bernarding and Fr. Shaughnessy just how freakish, untrustworthy, and deceptive these figures really are. Fr. Bernarding puts the case in a nutshell when he reaches the following conclusion concerning the reliability of the Directory figures: "That they are faulty, most priests realize; just how faulty they are, probably very few know. It is only by tables of the returns extending over a number of years, such as the writer has kept for the past decade, that this comes to light. These tables show that out of 108 dioceses and vicariates recorded in the Directory, only thirty-eight, or about one-third, have never sent in the same population figures two years in succession. All the rest have duplicated figures repeatedly, most of them as often as five or six times, and in this some of the large dioceses are the worst offenders."

The gratitude of all the readers is due to both of these writers for the abundant evidence they have presented showing that the figures in the Directory are "unbelievably untrustworthy," and for all practical purposes either utterly meaningless or positively deceptive. Their studies raise in more acute [413] form than ever the question, "Can not some uniform system or method be worked out for the gathering of these vitally important statistics, so that they will be at least substantially reliable?" This appears to be urgently needed if we are to secure any dependable measurement of the annual gain or loss of Catholic population. As Bishop Noll points out, we can not at present determine "whether the Catholic population is growing or declining".

Before taking up the discussion of the sources of leakage, may I refer briefly and impersonally to two criticisms? Dr. Shaughnessy characterizes my presentation of the statistical groundwork published by Dr. Ross in The Commonweal as "slavish copying," and because I presented one of these computations twice, I am convicted of "absurd logic". Careful reading of my article will disclose my express acknowledgment of Dr. Ross's study as the source of the data presented, coupled with reference by name to Dr. Ross not less than six times. This shows that I made no pretense of originality and was content to play the humble role of reporter. Furthermore, I secured a more detailed statement of the statistical method used by Dr. Ross than appeared in The Commonweal, and presented it in a footnote so that it might be subjected to the most searching scrutiny. While presenting his thesis as cogently as I could, I invited refutation of the statistical groundwork by the presentation of factual evidence. Both Fr. Bernarding and Dr. Shaughnessy have presented abundant evidence and have the gratitude of the readers and of myself for so doing. In stating the above I do not wish to shift any onus to Dr. Ross. For carrying the discussion of the Review, where it would receive due attention and scrutiny, I assume sole responsibility.

It will be remembered that earlier in the year a story had appeared not only in every Catholic paper but in practically every secular newspaper in the country, stating that according to figures released by the Directory, the Catholic population of the U. S. for the year ending Dec. 31, 1930, was 20,091,593. This, the news story stated, represented a gain of but 13,391 over the preceding year in spite of the addition of 39,528 converts. On the very face of the story, there was apparently a loss in the number of born Catholics, which became disturbingly [414] large when one realized that the natural increase by excess of births over deaths, would alone mount into the hundreds of thousands. A few months later appeared Dr. Ross's article. What better place to have this disturbing problem solved than in the Review, a magazine for the discussion of problems affecting the priestly ministry? Like every other priest in the country, I am glad to learn that any story based on the Directory figures is, as Mark Twain observed of the report of his death, "slightly exaggerated".

Secondly, Fr. Shaughnessy pictures the writer as charging that the Church in America is "decadent, corrupt, and corroded to the heart," and as attacking "the good faith of bishops, priests, and people". Why? Because of the view I expressed that "we have unwittingly and unwillingly contributed vast annual quotas of born Catholics to swell the ever-growing army of the churchless around us." But this is a complete non sequitur. Even if the loss were so great as one out of every forty, it would not be a direct reflexion [sic] upon our bishops, priests, and people. The unfairness and the illogicality of such a charge can be clearly shown by a simple reductio ad absurdum. One out of twelve left Christ. Shall we say, therefore, that Judas's defection is a direct attack upon the character of Jesus Chrsit? Qui nimis probat, nihil probat.

Causes of Leakage

Let us come now to the causes of leakage. There is probably no priest in America who will question the fact that there are defections from the Church here, as there are in every country in the world. Not only now, but in every age since Judas sold his Master for thirty pieces of silver. What is the size of the annual leakage? There are apparently no reliable statistics by which this can at present be determined. But that it is too large to be ignored, is also the conviction of every priest out on the firing-line. There is probably scarcely a parish in America but has its quota of sheep "lost, strayed, or stolen". That few from our ranks are to be found in the constantly increasing army of over sixty-five millions of people, surrounding us on every side, who are unaffiliated in any active way with any church, is an illusion held by none of the bishops or priests with whom the writer has convassed [sic] the subject.

[415] In a recent address, Cardinal Mundelein pointed out that, with the streams of immigration stopped, the growth of the Church will be effected [sic] by gaining converts and stopping defections. But in order to stop defections it is necessary first to discover their causes. In order that the study might reflect something like a cross-section of the observations and experience of the bishops and priests of the country, about forty personal letters were sent in December and January to prelates, pastors, and priests engaged in education and acting as editors in various parts of the United States. In addition, about ten laymen who are distinguished for their services to the Church, and who have unusually wide contacts, were consulted. The response manifested a degree of interest on the part of bishops, prelates, members of the secular and regular clergy, as well as of laymen, that was little short of a revelation to the writer. All but about three responded. Many went out of their way to say that the investigation was most timely and that nothing but good could result from a frank and courageous facing of the causes of leakage.

1. Lack of Priests and Churches.

One of the fundamental causes for leakage has been the lack of an adequate number of priests to provide ministrations of religion for a population which in a little more than a century and a half has spread over a vast wilderness of forest and prairie stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In this incessant trek of vast migrations to the West, it was inevitable that great numbers of people would find themselves in settlements where there was neither priest nor church, and where a priest would not be seen for years. Despite the heroism of those pioneer priests and missionaries, the vast expanse of territory made it simply impossible for them to reach the myriad settlements which sprang up everywhere in the marvelous epic of the making of America.

The carving of a vast empire out of a virgin wilderness covering an expanse of over three thousand miles in a little over a century and a half, has had as its inevitable concomitant the dispersion of uncounted numbers into settlements where the ministrations of religion could not possibly be secured. The result has been that great numbers—whose magnitude we can [416] only conjecture—deprived of contact with priest, sister, or teaching brother, have been lost to the faith.

The conditions described are still to be found in some degree in the missionary diocese of the South and West. A bishop in the Southwest informs the writer of parishes in his dioceses which cover over a hundred miles before the nearest parish is reached. There are families in remote parts of these parishes, comprising a territory larger than some whole dioceses in Europe, which can be reached only a few times a year. Priests who have labored in missionary dioceses in the West and South have reported visiting out-of-the-way settlements and encountering families who had not had the ministrations of a priest either to baptize their children or bury their dead for over a decade.

It was because of the conditions such as this that Bishop Kelley established the Extension Chapel Car, to bring the comforts of religion at least periodically to thousands of scattered settlements in remote districts of our country. The erection of hundreds of little mission churches by the Extension Society and the sending of priests to minister to them occasionally have undoubtedly served to rescue many thousands who otherwise would have lapsed, due to circumstances over which they had little or no control.

The evidence of lapses due to this factor are not, however, confined to the South or West. There are scars to be found in probably the great majority of counties in our land. Take, for instance, the heart of Illinois, where the Church is vigorous and well-organized. From the church in which the writer ministers you can travel in one direction over an arterial highway thirty-five miles before you come to another Catholic church. Yet along that highway you pass through eight towns, villages, and settlements in which there is not even an out-mission. For fifteen years the writer has read in the local newspapers of marriages and burials of scores of people with distinctively Irish Catholic names—the services taking place in Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, or Disciples' churches.

According to pioneer priests they are the descendants of families which settled there in the early days when priests were very few and they have been for over half a century without [417] the ministrations of priest or church. The result is that there is scarcely a vestige of Catholicity left in the families throughout this particular territory. Priests have informed the writer of many such territories where a similar story could be told. Indeed the question might well be raised as to whether there are many counties in the country in which evidence of the ruthless operation of this factor could not be found.

Dr. Charles P. Neill, who has brought honor to the Church by the distinguished record he has achieved in the friendly settlement of disputes between capital and labor, from the administration of President Roosevelt to the present time, lays great stress upon this factor. Incidentally Dr. Neill reports that Archbishop Ireland, strongly convinced, as a result of his long ministry and his wide observations, of a tremendous leakage, urged Dr. Neill to make a thorough investigation of its extent and causes. It is a real misfortune that the pressure of many duties prevented so able a scholar in the social and economic fields from undertaking such a systematic investigation many years ago. "I think there is no doubt," says Dr. Neill, "that there has been a tremendous leakage, and some valuable studies might be made in this field. A very thorough investigation should be made." Perhaps it might still be possible to secure Dr. Neill to direct such an investigation on a nation-wide scale, if it could be properly financed. The writer knows of no one more competent. The results would be invaluable.

Stressing especially the lack of priests, Dr. Neill relates how this was driven home to him at Johns Hopkins. "At an earlier period," he writes, "I think there was a tremendous falling off due to an environment in which there was lack of opportunities for the practice of the Catholic faith. This was brought forcibly to my mind a good many years ago when I was a student at Johns Hopkins. Another Catholic student and myself who were in the graduate department decided to attempt the organization of a Catholic society from among the graduate students in the Department of Economics. We went over the list of names and found such names as Riley, Callahan, Moran, and similar names which gave us reason for believing that they might be Catholics. We approached these students, to find that none of them were Catholics. Going into [418] the matter with them we found in practically all cases, that the families had originally been Catholic a few generations back. Some of them were from southern states where in the early generations the Church was very poorly organized and where probably they did not see a priest as often as once a year. One particular case impressed me very strongly where the student's name was M . . . , from Michigan. He told me that his family had moved to Michigan in the early days and were Catholics, but that there was no church organization in the section to which his grandfather had gone and that gradually they had drifted away from the Church entirely, although the descendants of his father's brother, who had remained in the east, were all still members of our Church."

2. Lack of Religious Instruction.

In the judgment of Bishop O'Hara and of a considerable number of the contributors to this investigation, lack of religious instruction is the largest single cause of leakage at the present time. Bishop O'Hara gives the following succinct statement of the case: "We have 18,000 churches and only 8,000 schools. Consequently, there are 10,000 groups of children who, under our futile system of Sunday schools, have very little chance to know what their religion is about. Our 2,500,000 children not in Catholic schools need to be better cared for. Real religious instruction, on the intellectual plane, is of course, by necessity, a matter of adolescents and adults. A mastery of the abstract principles of religion is only possible to minds somewhat developed. Here is a great weakness. The vast majority of young folks in America get secular training in high schools and large numbers in colleges, but comparatively few Catholics have religious education beyond the eighth grade. Adult religious education must keep pace with adult secular education—or religion must suffer a loss. The large number who cannot be brought to Catholics schools, have been very largely neglected."

The importance of this factor is likewise stressed by Monsignor Joseph H. McMahon, who ranks it as one of the two most prolific causes of defection. "In regard to this factor," Monsignor McMahon writes, "we find it almost impossible to get the children attending the public schools to come for religious instruction, or even to Sunday school. Once they [419] have been graduated from the elementary grades they are lost to us as a rule unless the home be thoroughly Catholic. This is unlikely, as, if it were so, the children would not be attending public schools. Of course parishes are to blame where there are not Catholic schools. In some cases the higher authorities have all the blame . . . Unless our children go from our elementary schools to Catholic high schools, (1) they never get more than an elementary education in their religion; (2) their association in public high schools dulls their faith, weakens their hold on the religious knowledge they possessed when leaving the elementary schools; (3) kills all devotional practices; (4) destroys any idea of making sacrifices for their faith; (5) gradually eliminates the supernatural from their lives and leaves them with the secular standard of worldly success as the one object worthy of achievement."

Similar stress is placed upon lack of religious instruction as second among the causes why so many Catholics are falling away to-day, by Fr. Joseph McSorley, C.S.P., who says: "there is too little education of the sort which will fit the soul of the individual for the trials—moral and religious—of life." Our people do not know their religion. We do not equip them with a personal apologetic with which they can meet the onset of hostile criticism, or even their own difficulties arising from modern unbelief and indifferentism."

That the problem of devising more effective means of reaching with careful systematic religious instruction the 2,500,000 children not in our parish schools, is one of the most urgent facing us to-day, is becoming increasingly apparent to pastors everywhere. Until this gap is plugged, it seems inevitable that a continued leakage of large proportions will occur. Readers are probably aware of the two means which Bishop O'Hara has devised of meeting this problem, at least in part—the religious vacation school and the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Dr. Matthew Smith of The Denver Register calls attention to another practice instituted by Bishop O'Hara for reaching with a religious message people who would otherwise go untouched.

"It has always been my opinion," says Dr. Smith, "that our rural churches were used too little. If a priest goes only once a month, that is no reason why the church should remain locked [420] at other times. Bishop O'Hara has the people gathered together in every mission each Sunday morning for the recitation of the Rosary, reading of the Epistle and Gospel by one of the men, and then a catechism lesson for the youngsters and a study-club session for the adults. The results have been startling. The idea is very old—it is merely an adaptation of the catechist method to our rural missions. If it had been followed a generation ago, thousands who are now Methodists, Baptists, or nothing, would be Catholics. May the movement started in Great Falls spread!"

3. Lack of Home Training

It would seem difficult to overstress the basic importance of proper home training. Church and school will labor in vain, unless the home supports and reenforces [sic] the ministry of the other two agencies. It has been the experience of priests, sisters, and teaching brothers that a bad home environment will often speedily nullify the teaching imparted in church and school. A zealous priest who has spent about a quarter of a century in the ministry states the case well. "My experience has brought me into contact with thousands of young Catholics, and I am convinced that the kind of home they come from is much more important than whether they went to a Catholic school or not. Generally speaking, neither the church nor the school can make up for home deficiencies. The home remains the most important agency for religious training and the formation of character. One reason, of course, for the failure of so many homes to give proper Catholic training is the general break-down of the home. But another reason is the emphasis placed on Catholic schools. In September our people hear sermons that seem to say they fulfill their responsibilities as parents if they send their children to a Catholic school. For every such sermon, there should be a second one to emphasize the duties of parents at home for the religious education of their children. In line with this, our schools—at least high schools and colleges—should be doing more than they are to train our young people to fulfill their parental duties later on. And our parishes should strive to develop some machinery for adult education looking in the same direction."

Proper home training is of supreme importance. It must be made focal in our thinking. There has been apparently [421] too much reliance upon other agencies, too great a tendency to shift the unescapable duties of parents to the shoulders of sisters and priests. There is need of driving home to parents the stern realization that upon the fidelity with which they discharge their divinely appointed duties of training their children in the knowledge, love, and practice of their holy religion, the continued growth of God's Church in America will largely hinge.

While the above is only the scratching of the surface of the causes of leakage, and only a fragmentary reflexion of the convictions expressed in over a hundred pages of letters on the writer's desk, it may suffice as the first study of the causes of leakage and of methods of stemming them. Loyalty to Christ and His holy Church does not require that we ignore defections, but that we search for them with eager and open eyes, and upon finding them that we strive by might and main to lessen and eliminate them.

Seated at Jacob's well, the Master pointed toward the Samaritans thronging toward Him, and addressed to His apostles the message that comes to us to-day with peculiar urgency: "Behold! I say to you, lift up your eyes and see the countries: for they are white already to harvest." Until the last sheaf of human souls is gathered unto the eternal hills, and placed at the feet of the Divine Master, the priests of America will struggle and labor and pray, conscious that the stars in their courses are fighting for us. No matter how the tide of victory ebbs and flows, we know that God, and everlasting truth and the "victory which overcometh the world, our faith" are on our side.

John A. O'Brien.

Champaign, Illinois.

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Source: John A. O'Brien, "Causes of Catholic Leakage," Ecclesiastical Review 86 (April 1932): 412–421.

Francis Bredestege, "Relative Position of the School and the Other Agencies Affecting Character Development" (1929)

[455] We proceed in this chapter from the hypothesis that though the school is the first instrument that occurs to the mind when education is mentioned, it is not the first, neither in time nor in the sum of its effects nor effectiveness.

Historically, as well as to-day, the family is anterior to the school, and education in the general sense, begins in the home. The relation between parents and children is the most primitive form of learning, and also the first in which there is a union of intellectual and moral education. The first gift of the grown generation to the new, viz., the mother tongue, is named after the mother, and the next two vital intellectual gifts and most intelligible units of life, viz., the father's house and the fatherland, are named after the father.

Even now, however, we are not at the beginning of the chain. If science, and specifically psychology and biology are correct, we are far from the beginning in taking only the immediate family of the educand [sic; i.e. one to be educated] as the beginning point of the process of education. We must go far back beyond the formation of each individual unit of our social fabric. Even Emerson was only partially correct by claiming that we must begin with the child's grandfather. For a complete list of the complex array of the material we are to deal with antedates the bride and groom by several centuries. We need only point to the large amount of matter recently written on the relative importance of heredity and environment to stress the point, for this angle of the question will be brought out in extenso, before we separate after this meeting. Suffice it to say then, actually man begins his education centuries before as an individual [456] he begins his existence and his training in moral and social life. The psychological factors, the bodily conditions he will inherit, and the environment into which he will be born, these really make up agency number one.

Already conditioned then, the child meets his mother and his father, who then constitute agency number two. He steps into family life, and in the ordinary course of events, he will not be free from it, in one form or another, till he closes his eyes in his last long sleep. During at least the most malleable first six years his education is directed almost entirely either for good or for evil by this agency. Family life, then, in its widest sense, though in point of time not the first, is admittedly the most important and lasting educational instrument because as soon as life begins, and before the child has even the barest conceptions of responsibility, or an inkling of morality, there come into play the assimilations on which moral training is based, those subconscious factors of thought, desire, interest, suggestion and imitation, that arise from the intimate contacts established by the common life of the family group.

This is no place to enter into a rhapsody extolling what we carry into life from home. Sentiment has invested the home with a sanctity which under normal conditions amply justifies the verdict. Mother love and fatherly sacrifice are the miraculous commonplaces not only of all literature but equally of the savage too mentally poor to have a literature. The ties of family life are reckoned too sacred to bear rupture, "to love like a brother" is a banality in every language under the sun. In the family circles are planted and nurtured the seeds of those homely virtues that make up the warp and woof of every ordered life, reverence, love, sacrifice, faith. No matter what may be the final definition here of character, we are safe in saying that it will not depart far from this paraphrase of Bishop Ullathorne's: "Character is the natural temperament completely fashioned by the home; God makes our nature, our own home makes our character".

And still, like all things human, home can fail of its destiny. The school itself is but an extension, a corrective of the home; as such it has won its unchallenged place in our social economy. It [457] is possibly significant that equally universal with the failure of the home proclaimed by every sociological amateur and professional, is the cry regarding the failure of the school. That the home has failed must possibly be admitted. Just consider in addition to the school, the day nursery and kindergarten, the public playground and juvenile court placement, industrial home and reformatory, big brother and big sister leagues, vocational guidance movement and amusement park, the whole long list of twentieth century substitutes for the home that has failed. And the verdict of failure is supported by the attitude of the Church. In spite of the fact that she had schools of high efficiency long before the present-day omnipresent state began its career, and before the sociological meddler was abroad in the land, the Church is now the one middle-of-the-road organization, that is protesting against the continual spoliation of the home, of its sanctity, of its authority and of its place as the sun of our social solar system.

The spoliation does exist. Much of it may be due to causes with which no one can quarrel. The complexity of modern life and the scientific age in which we live have made necessary a division of labor, even in our relaxations. We presuppose that the average child spends a large part of his life in the home and we are probably correct. Still, it seems an anomaly that the modifications of family life in our complex modern civilization are such that he is not entirely a pessimist who declares that when the child is ready for school, he is already too spoiled to have the school do its best work with him. For as he begins to approach school age the child makes contacts with the corner butcher and grocer, with the movies; he has possibly been taken to see or rather endure, the local counterparts of adult interests like the Lindbergh reception, floods, possibly even murder trials; he has cultivated the acquaintance of his relatives and his parents' friends, and has even been in church on occasion; his play time with his toys and neighbor children or kindergarten group really making up the routine of his waking hours. According to Bird T. Baldwin, roughly fifty per cent of his time is taken up with sleep and about ten per cent goes for meals and other bodily necessities. From twenty-seven per cent the first year to about [458] eight per cent the sixth year, or an average of twenty per cent of his time is spent alone in physical or imaginative play. Of the balance, about fifteen per cent more goes into family and non-family play and mental contacts, and about four is taken up with the rudimentary business and social contacts that introduce him to the outside world. Supposing then, that one-half or three-fourths of the time spent alone or in personal contacts is contact with the home and the family group, and is given to mental absorptions and exercise of his growing faculties, his instincts, habits and will, we still can recognize that foreign interests, so to speak, have used up from twelve to twenty per cent of his life, or one-fourth of his waking hours. What he got from these domestic and foreign influences we shall see later. For the present it is enough to recall that they are all attributed to the home. He knows love and quarreling, selfishness and sacrifice, sickness and health, he has his code of ethics and his standards of values; in spite of his simplicity and candor, he is a calculating worldling, in spite of his baptismal innocence an adept in all the capital sins but lust and sloth. So stands the home indicted.

After school life begins, the child's use of time does not change much. Allowing ten to eleven hours of sleep at the age of seven, and eight hours at the age of sixteen, we find that thirty-eight per cent of his time is given over to sleep, and approximately ten per cent to meals and other necessities.

Of the remainder of his day, we imagine school to be the big interest. But as a matter of fact, the statistics say that between the ages of seven and sixteen, the average child spends only 186 days of the year in school and the average number of hours per day is only four and a fraction, or approximately sixteen per cent. In the case of our Catholic schools, this fraction may, perhaps, be raised to the next higher integer, in view of the close connection between church and school, through daily and Sunday Mass, first Holy Communion and Confirmation preparation, confessions, serving Mass, and in the other activities where the church character of our schools manifests itself. Supposing then that the formal aspects of his character training by the school last till sixteen years of age, it still remains that the "ten years of schooling" [459] become a small fraction of all his interests and activities from birth till the day he goes out into the world. To be exact, the school has him for sixteen per cent of ten years out of the total, and allowing another hour a day for "home study", we find that he is in school only nineteen per cent of his school life, and only twenty-two per cent of all his waking hours from infancy till his seventeenth birthday. In fairness, we may raise these figures a trifle by adding the growing office of the vacation school, the gymnasium class, the children's hour in the public library, and the reading of books from the school's circulating library. But even then, the percentage is still startlingly small.

The relative disposal of his time when he has reached the age of sixteen can be seen from the following article from the press (Cincinnati Times-Star, Mar. 19, 1929), and shows how his habits have "set" by then:

"The Industrial Education Bureau of the New York State Department of Education has been trying to find out (how boys spend their evenings), and to this end has questionnaired [sic] 75,000 boys attending the continuation schools. Of this number 12 per cent must have concluded that it was nobody's affair but their own, for they sent in no reply. Sixteen per cent said they were never at home in the evening, nine per cent said they were always at home, and 40 per cent said they remained at home for two, three or four evenings a week; night classes accounted for ten per cent.

"While Cincinnati boys have not been official quizzed, one can get a pretty fair picture of their nocturnal activities. After dinner every night the average lad leaves home for a space to foregather with other lads. At least twice a week he sees a picture in what is called the 'naborhood' movie house. Once a week he goes down town. One evening a week is spent with some group or club. When he returns late, he may turn on the radio for an interval, and then study, or at least, go through the motions thereof for a little while. He reads much more than you might think, glancing over the morning paper before he breakfasts, scanning the evening paper before the nocturnal exit, and somehow contriving to get through a novel or so a week. He is not much of a hand at cards.

"Obviously the modern lad is accumulating a far greater store of experiences, observations and social contacts than the lad of [460] a generation ago. Whether he ever mulls over this mass of raw material we shall not attempt to say."

But what we can say is that the home represents a small fraction of the average youth's guidance and character formation. Arbitrarily assuming that one-half of his play, non-theatrical recreation and other interests are in the home or its immediate environment, we have only an average of three and three-fourths hours of his waking day under home influence ,including newspaper reading, parental conversation, social and business visits, etc. We have already seen that the school gives very little more.

Greater than home and school, then, are the forces that make up agency number three, the greater group life. We have already seen that the growing child has thrust upon him fringes of social contacts, parts neither of home nor school, and ranging form his neighborhood playmate to the distant cities he visits with his vacationing parents. As he grows, there increase in number and power the common associations and forces of our institutional life, educational, religious, legal, political and economic, such as divorce, selfish individualism of public characters, the zeit-geist, organized philanthropy, organized sport, big business, etc.

Now there is still to be brought into the picture educational agency number four. We might call this group the non-professional educating agencies, to denote their indirect but formal participation in the school's function of giving information, health habits, economic training and a moral outlook on life. Specifically it is only necessary to mention as examples, the press with its variations, the lending and public library as avowedly educational, and the still more informally educational organizations like the boy scouts and girl scouts, and the large variety of well-intentioned and often well-endowed adult activities and leagues for the young, such as civic leagues, park and playground associations, civic theatres, etc. Besides them, potent for good or evil, stands the theatre, and its illegitimate half-brother, the movie.

In last place we shall mention the Church, not because its influence, at least with us is smallest, but because unfortunately its [461] influence is last with perhaps eighty-five per cent of our total population, and with a proportionate percentage of the school boys and girls of the land. With the total school population of our country (1926) in excess of 26,900,000, and with only 2,300,000 of them in private schools, we see the comparative place of the Church in its contacts on the growing mind of America. To the Church must then be added the growing influence of the weekday religious school, and of summer and vacation catechism classes. The temptation to disparage their importance as an adjunct of the Church is worth pointing out, as possibly half of our Catholic children are in public schools.

Thus then, do we group the character-building forces that surround the child: home, school, economic society, sociological agencies, and the Church. Now the chief fundamental in character-building is impression. Constancy and intensity of impression become the dominant factors in the formation of habits and ideals. Consider the stresses, the pushing and the pulling, the attractions and repulsions of this assembly of agencies all working for good or for evil in the development of the child's character. What a storm of impressions, what a crowd of examples, what a hurricane of correct and distorted attitudes, of genuine and sorry ideals rain down into the unanalyzing mind from these sources. We hear so much of the socially unfit, of the wave of youthful crime, of the bleak outlook for the future, and of the hopeless helplessness of the home, and the impotence of school and Church.

Are we justified in adopting pessimism? As Churchmen, we cannot consent to the proposition that the family, founded by nature and sanctified by God, has failed, much as individual families may fail. When we see the large number of young people passing into an efficiently and even heroically moral manhood and womanhood, we can see a new meaning in the trite proverb: There's a special Providence that watches over children.

And as school men we repudiate the statement that the school has failed. We must perhaps revise our estimate of the degree of influence the school may exercise in fact, but we must keep in mind, in the case of the school as well as of the home, that the [462] time element is not indicative of the relative weight of that influence. Home and school are still the first agencies that receive the child, and first impressions still are deepest. Much though encroachments on the past monopoly of these two educational agencies may be true, it should also be true that the power for good represented by home and school is first in possession of the child's soul, and should be able, with honest exertion, to hold it to its first conscious allegiance. Knowledge is power, and both these agencies must use their power with the knowledge that perhaps a majority of the educational instruments we enumerated above, are all but unfavorable to the work of character building and its conservation in the individual.

Another point that must be remembered is the fact, that even granted the handicap of relatively less time, the school is but the extension of the home, and that the alliance between the two is productive of a strength that is not the sum, but the product of the two. But an effective "union between the two is the first requisite for enduring success. There should be a continuous friendly understanding and cooperation, sanctified by the spirit of Christian faith and charity, and the earnest conviction of a common responsibility to God", says Monsignor Oechtering. However, when we come to analyze this union concretely, we find that there has in general not been an understanding of these reciprocal possibilities. We need only mention the Parent-Teacher movement as a belated recognition of the fact that teamwork could be improved. But in this alliance nothing will be gained by the pot calling the kettle black. The home admittedly has its faults to answer for. We have already seen the general nature of the indictment against it, namely, a surrender of its functions and prerogatives in general, and an inclination to "pass the buck" to the school in particular. And as education becomes more technical, the parent feels justified in a continuation of this policy on the score of inability to assist intelligently. Any one of our Sisters, to keep the question within our own system, can tell how much contact she has with parents in the course of the year, and how much of this precious little is due to parental wrath only. And on the other hand we know, too, how little [463] the average Sister knows the economic problems and domestic worries that result from our indoor sport of keeping up with the Joneses.

The school then, may in justice excuse itself from a great deal of the responsibility for the imperfect character building of the past, since it was handicapped by receiving no help from the home in trying to educate the already spoiled child deposited with a sigh of relief at its door. But the school, also, in its shortsightedness made a tactical error so to speak, and to this extent it cannot excuse itself. the error lay in the fact, that when the school saw that the home was not accomplishing its task in the dual work of character building, and perhaps was often not even appearing to attempt it, the school forgot its own limitations and volunteered to take over the major portion of the work, even that which was formerly the fully recognized work of the home. The nursery, the kindergarten, and the other infant interests that supplement the home, are in reality an independent unit, an ally if you will, but certainly not a legitimate part of the educational machinery as we knew it from tradition. But the school tried to make them an integral part of itself. The same thing is occurring at the other end of the elementary ladder even now. The matter of vocational guidance, and even vocational training is also an usurpation on the part of the school. These are really a successor of the apprentice system, also a character forming agency if you will, but even then a rather limited one, and an oblique one. With it the school ought to live in peace, of course, but not to make a part of the school system. Apprenticeship was originally in the home, and the advent of the factory system took it out of the home to give it to the factory master and the foreman. Nor does the fact that its original home form gave it some opportunity for character training become a reason for the school to annex it as soon as it leaves the home environment.

Now it is has only been in the very recent past that a cautious word of warning has been taken up here and there, that the school was attempting too much. Nor was the school very anxious to listen to that word, because of the implication that its over-ambition was foreordaining it to failure in its narrower and more [464] legitimate sphere, collective educational activity in the nobler sense. In that narrower sphere the school has a special opportunity of aiding the home by inculcating the domestic virtues. "It should ever strive to foster reverence, love and obedience by religious instruction and respectful deference to parental authority." But how can it inculcate for the home it has despoiled? As long as the skeleton of the home even remained, the whole process is but lost motion, if the inculcation is not based on a mutual understanding with the home as to complementary duties of inculcation and practice. So it would seem that perhaps the school as well as the home, did not understand its task in the alliance. Its ambitions outran its abilities, and in its vanity it saw not that the failures of its ally were being imputed to itself.

Another point that must be kept in mind is that it took the work of character building with woefully unfit tools. Historically, character building is not the first connotation of school life as we know it. The pedagogue of ancient Greece, and the educator of pagan Rome were but slaves who accompanied the pupil to a place where he was expected to acquire nothing more than literacy. And to-day to the man in the street, school means an intellectual relationship between a teacher and an ignorant person for the imparting of knowledge and skills. The relation between an educator and his pupil is a much later derivative, and is founded on the realization of a power for good in the educator that comes only by implication and in virtue of his personal contacts. Originally children were sent to school to learn arbitrary but necessary skills, the three R's, and it was not till the advent of Christianity, and in proportion to its vigor that the fourth R, religion, gave proof that the school also was baptized, and learned its higher destiny from the Church. Hear the average educational theorist outside of the fold to-day, and his theme will still be the same as the old pagan idea, social efficiency, not for the sake of the individual but for society, and if he mentions character at all, it is only the lubricant in the social friction. From this it follows then, that education, as a quantity production job, is possible only in so far as it is an intellectual job; as soon as you attack the moral angle you must descend to the individual. It is the scholastic [465] parallel to the pulpit supplemented by the confessional, and the blackboard supplemented by drill pad.

Parallel to this is the point that as the character training idea has been added to the function of the school, extra curricular activity has risen in the estimation of those responsible for educational practice. The inference is easy that the imparting of information, as an educational function was not able to enlist the individual as an individual, so the school has ben forced to take the educand out of the classroom into the football field, the office of the school paper, or the school traffic squad to give him the opportunity for moral training, because there he could really act as an individual and develop his character. Of a piece with this fact is also the increased emphasis on individual attention and needs in the classroom exercises themselves; as their training value was better perceived, these subjects were more and more given over to the pupil and taken away from the teacher.

What we need then is a restatement of the real place of the school in this work of character building, and a more humble recognition of its limitations. The limitation is first due to the fact that the school is primarily intellectual. And this must be borne in mind in spite of the fact that the school, just as any other agency that gives men the opportunity of thought and conduct, gives opportunity for the exercise and development of character, but it does so incidentally. Even the parochial school is only a tool in the hands of the teaching Church, and must not try to claim credit for what grace and the Church are accomplishing.

As an arbitrary institution with intellectual ends it follows that Dewey's famous statement that the school is society is only partially true, and to add to the difficulty the child coming to school is only a limited social being, both his objectives and his vision being still very narrow. Consequently the school can fulfill only partially Charter's demand to "require practice with satisfaction", because as an arbitrary and specialized agency it stops short of "generalized practice". It can go part of the way with the pupil, but the time comes when it must stop and allow the youngster to go farther in the company of the other agencies [466] we have listed above. It can instruct and warn what is to be awaited of them, but it cannot be there when the crisis of actual conduct occurs. In fact, even in school the teacher is limited by its narrow arc; as Lommen says, it can "secure an inventory of the positive conduct qualities", but only a fraction of them will be given sustained and healthy exercise in the school atmosphere; it an "build up a positive program of activities", but can oversee their realization only in a small fraction of the total opportunities; it can fall back on "an intensive reading program", "but already we are trespassing on the vicarious", and are actually calling a non-school agency to take our charge in hand. This vicarious nature of the school is then the central weakness of the school's position in the entire process of character building. 

On the other hand, the very formal character of school work is one of the factors for its power in the task. As an instructor, it gives man his moral vocabulary; it gives him an exact appreciation of moral worth and its gradations; it holds up to his gaze the great successes in moral development in the heroes of religion and history; it defines the canons of good conduct and sharpens his conscience for their better evaluation and supplies the motives for their prompt appearance in action at the fitting moment. It furnishes in this way the fundamental attitudes towards "such acts as spring from habits of diligence, frugality, economy, simplicity, contentment, punctuality, order, cleanliness and loyalty to the family circle". (Msgr. Oechtering, 1919) To these it adds very clear ideals as part of the mental equipment that will insure such action.

"The ideals fostered by Catholic Education", says the Hon. Pierce Butler in St. Paul in 1915, "elevate the importance of the individual, develop consciousness of the duty and the power of choice between right and wrong. Character, that is, morality based on religion, must be maintained and strengthened from generation to generation, respect for authority of government and for the teachings of religion, subordination of self in the interests of fellow men and loyalty to the laws, traditions and ideals of our country must continue to be inculcated as to become part of the life of every rising generation".

In second place, we must fashion a clearer idea of just what the school must put together as the constituents of the ideal character. [467] This has so far not been done, neither for nor by the school, nor has the next step, the careful grading of what is possible and desirable of the child both in his age relations, in his classroom relations and the out-of-school contacts. We can see the hodge-podge of alleged virtues and socially desirable qualities from a random selection of almost any standard volume. Witmer, for instance, (Psychological Clinic, Oct. 1922, p. 129) speaks glibly of the "six universal categories of behavior", and names "attendance and promptness, general attitude, initiative, cooperation, self-improvement, esthetic appreciation and rating in other moral qualities". Note this last pair in particular, and then try to follow the mental process by which the entire list is lumped as "citizenship qualities" under deportment, and required as a school mark on his ideal report card. Touton and Struthers, in Junior High School Procedure list as objectives of the guidance program a list which defies rational unity, namely, common sense, imagination, information, initiative, planning, reasoning, thoroughness, ambition, cheerfulness, helpfulness, honesty, industry, perseverance, self-control, self-reliance, loyalty, reliability, etc. Charters himself took a fling at the game (Journal of Education, May 29, 1924, p. 607) with a small list of cleanliness, leadership, democracy, honor, and independence.

But why continue? The one characteristic is vagueness of definition, and the lack of a reference back to a central controlling factor, what we theologians would term a cardinal or principal virtue. As a consequence, the parochial school, leaning on the infallible authority of the Church, ought to be able to blaze a clear trail here, and I understand that a beginning has already been made.

There is however still another angle to this question. After the list is made, it must be rearranged to meet the mental development of the child and his opportunities for practice as well as of appreciation. Patriotism, for instance, for him can be little more than a laying of foundations for his later life, and a building out of indefinite ideals, which can come to definiteness and fruition only as circumstances dictate, as when he has assumed the responsibilities of cheerful tax-paying, of choosing between two [468] dubious candidates for office, and of giving equal attention to the Volstead Act and the traffic laws, and of the other homely virtues that are being disguised as patriotism in our civic texts. A beginning has also been made in this. Parker, for instance (Types of Elementary Teaching and Learning, p [sic] 502) to mention only one, clearly indicates that some civic-moral training may be through actual behavior, and some that can be only through discussion. Coupled with a frank religious tie-up, such as is possible in our parochial schools, results based on an understanding of the limitations of school procedure ought to be genuine, granted a real teacher. Outside our own system, the real difficulty has always been, to make religious instruction an integral part of the subject-matter, a blessing we do not always advert to. The lack of a dogmatic foundation and an adamant sanction can have no substitutes, for "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom". (Ps. 112)

In conclusion then, it would seem that with home and school separated there is not hope for final success, between them they ought to dominate the field, if not in time at least in effectiveness. But they must be a unit, in their outlook, in their cooperation, and in a candid acknowledgment of the forces that are allied against them, because the mathematical factors make them a minority. The exact mathematical proportions cannot be given in decimals, of course, probably never will be, for it is in another guise the old problem of heredity and environment. The final results between home and school on the one side and the non-school agencies on the other, are a problem of the sum result of concomitant factors. Suffice it to say then, that ,granted the best possible contribution by the school, the number of exponents of the highest type of character must increase, because the average is affected by the individual items, and the school as the ex professo determiner of the knowledge element of character composition and development can give us the truth regarding virtue, and the "truth shall make you free" to exemplify it and realize it in life and in action.

[469] Bibliography

School and Society, May 9, '25, p. 543: School not the cause of the Present Immorality.

School and Society, June 13, '25, p. 695: Importance of Attention to Character Development in Pre-School Children.

Educational Review, Nov. '26, p. 180: Faults of Children are Due to their parents.

Mental Hygiene, Oct. '26, p. 735: Effect of Home Environment on Children's Conduct.

School Review, Oct. '26, p. 594: Data on Extent to which Vocational Schools Prepare for Vocations.

Religious Education, Feb. '27, p. 148: Correlating Church and Home.

Religious Education, p. 176: Defects of Character Education in the Public Schools.

Religious Education, May. '27, p. 477: Religious Education and Catholic Schools.

Journal of Educational Method, Mar. '27, p. 291: Educating for Desirable Attitudes in Conduct (Lommen).

Bird T. Baldwin: The Pre-School Child. Riverside Press.

Baldwin and Wallace: The Nursery School. Ibid.

Elementary School Journal, Dec. '24, p. 264; [sic] Two Factors in the Teaching of Ideals. (W. W. Charters)

W. W. Charters: The Teaching of Ideals.

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Source: Francis J. Bredestege, "Relative Position of the School and the Other Agencies Affecting Character Development," National Catholic Educational Association Bulletin 26, no. 1 (Nov. 1929): 455–469.