In the extracts from the
school committees' reports there are passages which imply some doubt of
the moral value of the system; but it is our duty to bear in mind that
these reports were prepared and presented for the praiseworthy purpose
of arousing an interest in the removal of the evils that are pointed
out. The writers are contemplating the importance of making the schools
a better means of moral and intellectual culture; but there is no reason
to suppose that in any case a comparison is instituted, even mentally,
between the state of society as it appears at present and the condition
that would follow the abandonment of our system of public instruction.
There are general complaints that the manners of children and youth have
changed within thirty or fifty years; that age and station do not
command the respect which was formerly manifested, and that some
license in morals has followed this license in manners.
The change in manners cannot be denied; but the alleged change in morals
is not sustained by a great amount of positive evidence. The customs of
former generations were such that children often manifested in their
exterior deportment a deference which they did not feel, while at
present there may be more real respect for station, and deference for
age and virtue, than are exhibited in juvenile life. In this
explanation, if it be true, there is matter for serious thought; but I
should not deem it wise to encourage a mere outward show of the social
virtues, which have no springs of life in the affections.
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