Ha 16 THE WESTERN AMERICAN cation of righteousness and judgment! But not only has the moral training been crowded out, as it were by indirec­ tion, through the pressure of the intel­ lectual burden of the school: it has also suffered more direct attacks, The chief of these may be summed up as a reac- tion against the pietism and the strict- ness of earlier periods, and an emphasis upon the right of the child to grow up in accordance with the springs and im­ pulses of his own nature. It is true that this very movement must be credited with some of the best elements in mod­ ern education: it forms the essence of the message of Pestalozzi, Froebel, and many lesser leaders in educational re­ form, all dating back, it hardly need be said, to Rousseau himself. But it is a commonplace that movements of pro­ gress swing, pendulum-like, to extremes, and the “child-centric” movement in education is no exception. The fact is that we are stricken with a plague of Rousseauism. Rousseau did not know how to tell “nothing but the truth”; he dealt habitually in hyperbole of an ex­ treme kind. As an example, take the famous dictum: “Do not command the pupils; never, on any conceivable sub­ ject!” This extraordinary injunction is but one grain of the kind of seed found abundantly in the most widely read book on education the modern world possesses, written by one who knew how to make the ears of his readers tingle. Rousseau was of course merely the elo­ quent and powerful voice in which the Spirit of the Age spoke; thousands of fathers and mothers and teachers who have neither read a line in the Emile are influenced by its ideas in their attitude toward their children and pupils. There is a terrible harmony between Rousseau’s absurd “Never command a child” and the suggestive gibe that there is just as much family government to­ day as ever, but that it has passed from the hands of the parents into the hands of the children. In our recoil from the harshness and pietism of the days of our great-grandfathers, and our enthu­ siasm for the rights of the child, have we not drifted into a policy of laissez- faire in moral training? Young people nowadays must not be preached to; even the sermon for children is so completely sugar-coated with humor and entertain­ ment that our ancestors would never have called it a sermon at all. Morally, we expect our young people to grow, like Topsy; strange indeed, when we consider how much care and attention we devote to their intellectual develop­ ment, and how much deliberate' and methodical instruction is spent upon the culture of their powers of thought! In the home the laissez-faire policy has been encouraged wonderfully by the absorption of the time and attention of parents by other things than the train­ ing of the children. This is especially true of fathers in the business and pro­ fessional classes. The intensity of com­ petition and the growing complexity of modern occupations have gradually en­ croached upon the time and available APRIL, 1928 powers of the man until he almost ceases to figure in the education of his chil­ dren. Every high-school principal is fa­ miliar with the case of the lad who has outgrown the control of the mother and is going to the bad because his father is too busy even to know what is happen­ ing. Few indeed are the fathers who seem to understand that in order to keep control of their sons they must actually spend time with them and maintain genuine intimacy. Teachers constantly observe that the boy whose father keeps in close touch with him has little trouble in school, and gives bright promise for the future. The serious cases of discip­ line, leading finally to suspension and expulsion, almost invariably arise where the father is too busy to do his part. The emergency in moral education is rendered the more serious by the situa­ tion of religion. Especially is this true in our own country. So far as we know, iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitliiiiiiliiiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiimiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiu CLASSIFIED Professions—Business ATTORNEYS i NELS JACOBSON 806 N. W. Bank Bldg. Main 4416 DAVID E. LOFGREN 1030 Ch. of Com. Bldg. Brd’wy 0462 SAMUEL OLSON 605 McKay Bldg Brd’wy 7097 äiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimmiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiuiiiiiiiuliliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiuiliiiiiiitiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiii Phone Broadway 7214 GULLIKSON & MILLER Dressed Meats and Poultry I 109 Front Street, Portland, Oregon âiiiiiitiiiiiiimiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiitiiiiiiiiimiimiimiiiiiiiiiiiiiimiiiiiiiiiiit h'llIlllllllllllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllltllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllUIIIIIUIIIIIIIIillllllllillllllllllHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIL Are you seeking U. S. Citizenship? of America, who are striv­ T HE ing foreign-born so hard to obtain that for which they came—liberty and advantages of U. S, Citizen­ ship-should remember that their reputation plays an important part in obtaining this citizenship. The man with a Savings Account is usually respected and admired. He is a man that Americans are glad to welcome as a fellow citizen. Because he has shown himself a dependable, self-supporting citizen. Save a little from every pay check. The savings account takes care of small accounts, helps to make them grow, and pays you in­ terest. $1.00 will open an account for you in this strong bank. BANK Oldest in the Northwest WASHINGTON AT THIRD PORTLAND, OREGON Public Sales E HAVE purchased 122,000 pair U. S. Army Munson last shoes, sizes 51/2 to 12 which was the entire surplus stock of one of the largest U. S. Government shoe contractors. W HIS guaranteed one per cent solid leather, dirt waterproof. The T actual value tan, of shoe tongue, is $6.00. Owing this tremendous hundred bellows and this buy we can offer same to the public at $2.95. shoe is color dark to END correct size. Pay postman on delivery or send money order. If shoes are not as represented we will cheerfully your money promptly upon request. S refund National Bay State Shoe Co. 296 BROADWAY ' NEW YORK, N. Y. ?illlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll>lllllllllllllllllllllllllilllllllllltllllllllllllllllilHllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll1IUIIIIIIIIIIII1llllll!llllllllllll'l'll |||lllll> Place Your Orders With The Western American Advertisers—and Tell Them Why B mb ÉÜ aH HSi ■ !