網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

should be, they expect punishment to succeed persistence in evil doing, as a matter of course, and their sense of right is disappointed, shocked, if it does not come. It seems to us that no sound and healthy moral nature, especially if the Bible and experience have been the guides, can withhold its approbation from such a doctrine.

Obedience in the family is the invariable assurance of obedience in the school. Obedience in the school makes loyal and obedient citizens of the state; loyal, patriotie, and obedient States make rebellion and treason to the government impossible. And the doctrine of the righteousness and certainty of ultimate severe punishment for crime and wickedness is the corner-stone of all intelligent and lasting obedience. Who can estimate the value of such sentiments deeply rooted in the minds and hearts of the five millions of school children in the Northern States? How sublime is the evidence of the growth and power of such sentiments, imperfectly inculcated as they have been; what a glorious affirmance of the national utility of free schools! Not a State that participated in the great rebellion ever had a system of free schools worthy of the name; and there was scarcely a loyal one that had not long pointed with pride to such a system. The line of free schools divided the loyal and rebel States almost as sharply as the different camps of the contending armies. No; neither revelation, history, experience, nor mental or moral philosophy, rightly interrogated, can be made to support the theory that force

should never, in the last resort, be invoked to extort obedience to the demands of just and rightful authority. But have these views been inculcated in our public schools with the earnestness and fidelity which their im portance demands? Is not insubordination bold and rampant among our youth? Has it not been increasing for years? Having been so long "sowing the wind," have we not begun to "reap the whirlwind"? and does not the harvest give promise of being fruitful and terrific?

It is in our common schools and families that these ideas of obedience must first be implanted in the mind and heart. We must there seek to enthrone in the soul just conceptions of the majesty and dignity of law; to inculcate a cordial recognition of the divine supremacy and grandeur of rightful authority. Children will thus be early brought to admit the nobleness, the blessedness, of hearty and joyous submission to such authority. They will learn to delight in a full surrender of conscious ignorance and weakness to the guidance of wisdom and strength. They will see in a cheerful subordination to just and duly constituted authority the highest glory and dignity of man. They will come to repudiate the foolish dogma, so common among the children of this generation, that submission is necessarily degradation; and assent to the truth that, when yielded to rightful authority, wielded by those lawfully invested therewith, submission is an honor, not a degra dation. Thus the habit of reverent allegiance is

wrought in the depths of the soul, and the duty of obedience to legitimate, beneficent human laws is associated, from early life, with that profound regard which is due from all finite intelligences to the Supreme Governor of the universe.

Once invested with these lofty attributes, the governing power sways its sceptre over willing minds and loyal hearts, whether in the family, the school, or the state. It is regarded not as the grim despot of iron visage and flinty heart, but as a friend, robed with paternal benignity and of genial aspect; the calm but inflexible dispenser of justice and mercy; "the terror of evil-doers," indeed, but also "the praise of those that do well." Nor is this elevated conception of the nature and duty of obedience an impracticable abstraction. Its essential idea may be imparted to and understood by very young children. Not, indeed, in the form of logical propositions, nor by any labored effort of didactics, but by the more plain and potent teaching of example and experience of its beneficent results in the family and school, seconded by the instincts and intuitions of the moral nature. Right principles may be born in the heart, approved by the conscience, and exercised in the life long before they are or can be compressed to the standard, or cut to the sharp dimensions, of logical formulas and maxims.

How inexpressibly hopeful and promising the manhood and citizenship of those who, in early life, are thus led to see and feel the nobleness and magnanimity of obedience

to just authority; by which the reasonableness and necessity of submission to salutary restraints is cordially admitted; whose judgment and conscience respond to every appeal of truth and duty; whose feelings and sentiments are firm and decided in favor of law and order, and uncompromising in their indignant rebuke of all that is low and base and rebellious. It will thus be seen that the blessings of that obedience which is essential to the welfare of the school do not cease when its immediate ends have been subserved. There are other and higher considerations which look beyond the horizon of the school-room to distant years, when the boy, clothed with the attributes and responsibilities of manhood, shall take his place as a member of the civil community. And thrice happy the state whose sons shall leave the school-room with a profound regard for the majesty of just and righteous law; with true ideas of the relations of the governed to the governing power; with a lofty sense of their obligations as citizens; with warm and filial love for the institutions of their country, and a steadfast purpose ever to maintain and defend them. (Made up from Hon. N. Bateman's Fourth Biennial Report, pp. 107-117.)

CHAPTER VI.

PUNISHMENT FOR MISCONDUCT OUT OF SCHOOL.

SEC. 1. When the late Hon. John C. Spencer, a gentleman of such eminent legal ability that he had scarcely a peer at the New-York bar, was Superintendent of Schools for the State of New-York, he is said to have given the following opinion: The authority of the teacher to punish his scholars extends to acts done in the school-room or play-ground only; and he has no legal right to punish for improper or disorderly conduct elsewhere. (Randall's Com. School Sys. p. 262.) But the opinion of any one man, whatever may be his position and learning, can not stand against the decision of the courts. We have preferred, therefore, to go back of this opinion, and look at the law for ourselves. Although we must confess that in the outset we expected to find authorities to support the opinion rather than to controvert it, now, however, after long and laborious research, we believe that our preconceived notions were erroneous; for although the courts have rarely been called upon to consider this subject, it has, nevertheless, been before them, and the law upon it has been fully and clearly explained.

« 上一頁繼續 »