Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

the law makes no provision whatever. Connecticut's report on education for 1901 shows that 85 per cent of the children in the public schools of that State do not complete the sixth year, which is the first year for which that law specifies the use of books on this subject even for teachers' use, while the same report shows the need of the added help of books for pupils because of the admitted lack of preparation of teachers in all branches. Thus no adequate provision is made by this Connecticut law for the education of 85 per cent, the overwhelming majority, of the future men and women of that State in this subject, which is essential to health, life, and good citizenship.

The school attendance in New York may vary from that of Connecticut, but the fact remains that a large class of our population does not go to school beyond the lower grades. Whatever we would teach them must be taught in those grades. This class is daily being increased by the children of the enormous number of immigrants coming to our State from the Old World. These foreign-born children ordinarily stay in our public schools only long enough to learn our language, to read and write enough to become bread winners. Under our present system of physiological instruction these and all other children are taught in the lower grades such elementary facts of hygiene as they can comprehend, including those relating to alcoholic drinks and other narcotics, which will help make them good American citizens, or to go on further in this progressive study, if they stay in school through the grades. To take this study away from these grades would be to exclude it entirely from a large class of our future citizens and be suicidal to the best interests of this the most populous State in the nation. To imagine that the people of New York would do such a thing is to imagine the impossible, namely, that they have lost their interest in the future well-being of their children and of their State soon to be governed by them. Whoever contrasts the New York law with the Connecticut law can not fail to see the immense superiority of the former.

TEXT-BOOKS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL FOR PUPILS' USE.

Fourth. The same arguments which have put text-books in other subjects in the hands of children old enough to use them intelligently apply to this study as well. Without some use of books in the grammar grades too much work is thrown on the teacher and too little responsibility on the pupil. The child does not go to school to have knowledge poured into him, but to gain mental power, and this in no small degree comes from the use of books in physiology as in arithmetic or geography.

Experience has shown that, owing to the lack of preparation of teachers, where text-books are not required for pupils' use in this branch, as soon as they are able to glean information from the printed page the study is apt to degenerate into monotonous exhortation instead of consisting of definite, progressive instruction which presents new matter each year as do the series of indorsed text-books. Therefore the laws of the National Congress and most of the States wisely specify text-books for pupils' use in this study in grades where books are used in other subjects, that is, from the fourth year upward. No such results as we are already able to chronicle in our own State could be cited from States in which this study is not pursued in the lower grades and where text-books are not required.

THE CHILD'S INTERESTS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED, NOT HIS LIKES AND DISLIKES. Fifth. The report of the Science Teachers' Association lays much stress on its claim that the children enter the high school with less interest in this subject because they have studied it in previous years. This is not supported by evi

dence. Of 320 replies which we received to the question, "Do the children in the various grades enjoy the study?" 257 say "Yes," or "As much as other branches." Eleven only say "No." The remaining 52 say: "It depends on the teacher" (18), "Some do and some do not" (11), "Yes, but most in certain grades" (23).

We doubt whether a better showing could be made for any other subject taught in the public schools if a similar question were asked in regard to it. Interest on the part of the pupil is desirable, and, as is shown by the figures above, is being secured in this as in other branches. But whether the children like this or any other study is a matter of little practical bearing on the question whether it should be taught. We do not ask, "Do pupils after having studied mathematics through the grades enter the high school with increased or diminished interest in that subject?" We do ask whether they have such an adequate knowledge of it as will enable them to take part intelligently in the affairs of the world. So with physiology and hygiene it is not a case of "increased or "diminished" interest, but whether the child has sufficient knowledge to guide him in intelligent observance of the laws of health.

Besides, to view this matter almost wholly from the standpoint of the high schools, as does the Science Teachers' Association, is to fail to take cognizance of the great host of children who never reach the high school, and who will not have any intelligent interest to be either "increased" or diminished" if instruction is withheld from the lower grades.

MISCONCEPTION OF THE CHARACTER AND SCOPE OF THIS INSTRUCTION.

The Science Teachers' Association reports that "the evils of alcohol and narcotics can be presented most effectively from the moral and economic point of view." An understanding of the physiological effects of alcohol is an essential basis for a comprehension of the moral and economic arguments against its use. Because alcohol as a beverage is injurious it is morally wrong to use it. Hence a knowledge of its inherent character and consequent effects is essential to an intelligent comprehension of the moral aspects of the question.

The Science Teachers' Association recommends that "the possible benefits of alcohol, when prescribed by physicians, should be conceded" in a public school study of physiology and hygiene. The object of this instruction is prevention, not to teach medicine. It is admitted by the most ardent advocates of the medical use of alcohol that it should never be taken on lay prescription. If the pupil is to wait for the doctor to prescribe it, instruction as to its therapeutic use belongs to the medical college and would be a waste of time in the public schools. Therefore the subject of its medical use is not treated in the indorsed books.

The objection now reiterated by the Science Teachers' Association that this is "the only study dominated by legislative enactment" was well answered by a prominent member in a speech before the legislature at the time of the passage of the present temperance-education law. He said in substance:

Yes, gentlemen, that is true, and the public necessity for a specific law for this form of education is self-evident. It touches a product that has to be dealt with as we deal with no other. We put no restriction upon the farmer's selling his fruit and vegetables, but should he turn them into alcoholic drinks, in the interests of the public good we put restrictions upon their sale in order to reduce the resulting evil to the minimum. This study puts the restriction concerning the use of these substances upon the intelligence of the future men and women of this State. It is upon that intelligence that we must depend for the future of civil government; therefore it is the acknowledged right and duty of the State to provide in this as in other respects for such education as is essential to good citizenship.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS OF STATE CENTRAL COMMITTEE.

The answers to the inquiries sent out by our committee show that a large majority of the common school teachers believe in this study, appreciate its importance and object, and, as we have already shown, are doing faithful work that will make every lover of humanity glad and grateful for their service as the results of their labors are known.

From the answers received to our inquiries it is also evident that where dissatisfaction exists or where children are said not to enjoy the study, an explanation is to be found in one or more of the following causes:

First. The failure of school officials properly to arrange the course of study, with the result that the teachers feel this branch a burden.

Second. The selection of books unadapted to grade and the use of the same book through too many grades which leads to the charge of “ repetition."

Third. The personal habits of teachers, in some instances not in harmony with the desired end of this instruction.

Fourth. Misconception of what the law really requires.

We rejoice in the measure of success that has attended our present system of teaching physiology and hygiene. The testimony in our possession as to this success in our State shows that as an educational force for right living this study has passed beyond the experimental stage to that of results justifying the expectation that this form of education is destined to overthrow the greatest evil and peril of our times. Therefore we are opposed to any effort to change the law requiring this study. In order that the State may receive the greatest amount of benefit from it we urge:

First. Cessation of destructive criticism of the law and the instruction it requires by school authorities whose duty it is to enforce the law.

Second. A sincere, conscientious, and earnest endeavor on the part of educators, normal school principals, institute instructors, and teachers to carry out the provisions of the law in a constructive spirit, to fit themselves to make the subject interesting and to present it properly graded in such a way as to inculcate the principles of hygiene in the lives of the youth of our State and make them intelligent total abstainers.

Third. The appointment of institute instructors who are in sympathy with the law and whose personal habits conform to the teaching; who have made a study of physiology and hygiene, as required by law, and who will apply to this subject up-to-date methods of teaching.

Fourth. That superintendents of schools and school officials prepare suitable courses of study, naming text-books and supplementary helps adapted to grade. The report of the State Science Teachers' Association has been sent out to the teachers of the State, and the State central committee submit the foregoing reply in the best interest of the children of the State, and respectfully ask for its careful consideration on behalf of the committee for scientific temperance instruction.

DAVID JAS. BURRELL,

Chairman.

JAMES H. DARLINGTON,

First Vice-Chairman.

WM. T. WARDWELL,

Second Vice-Chairman.

ALFRED L. MANIERRE,

Secretary and Treasurer.

THE BATTLE AGAINST ALCOHOL IN THE UNITED STATES.

[From the French of F. Dupré La Tour, in the Musée Social for June, 1903.] The problem of alcoholism is among those which occupy the first rank in the minds of thinkers in the United States.

A commission of fifty distinguished persons, appointed six years ago to inquire into the moral condition of the American people, began with one accord by a study of alcoholism. Under the direction of such men as Messrs. Carroll D. Wright, Charles W. Eliot, Seth Low, James C. Carter, and Doctors Peabody and Atwater, the work was divided among four subcommittees, who were to consider the problem in its physiological, economic, moral, and legislative aspects.

The four volumes, the result of this collaboration, which were prepared by such conscientious editors as Messrs. Koren, Calkins, and Wines, form an inexhaustible mine of information for the economist and the legislator. It would be presumptuous to attempt to add anything to them.

But for the foreigner, more interested in the struggle itself, with its vicissitudes and its maneuvers, than in its origin and legislative steps, this vast inquiry needed a commentary. It remained to observe on the spot the army of temperance, to follow it on the field of battle, and to try to discover the secret of its victories. This is the task which the writer took upon himself, and he gives here a brief résumé of the results obtained from an observation of three months.

The United States is a country favorable to alcoholism. The climate, with its extremes of temperature, there being no transition whatever from one season to another, invites the use of stimulants and tonics. The dry atmosphere makes the fortune of all dealers in thirst-quenching liquids. The dietary methods are execrable, and how could it be otherwise, since the workman or employee, obliged to take an hour on the “elevated” for his trip to and from the factory or the business place in the city, has no time to eat at his leisure, and has but a half hour at most for his midday lunch? So he pretends to satisfy his hunger with cold pie with a thick crust of flour and sweets, and it is not long before he feels the necessity of assisting his rebellious digestion with something healing to his weakened stomach.

The high rents (an average of $3 a week for two rooms in the outskirts of New York) make it necessary for the workingman to limit the size of his lodging and increase the charm and social attraction of the public house.

Finally, that country is the rendezvous of emigrants from the four quarters of the world, some belonging to the sober races, as the Jews, Italians, and negroes; others carrying the weight of several centuries of intemperance, as the Irish and Scandinavians; but nearly all of them rendered incapable through poverty, loneliness, and even by the covetousness engendered by their small wages ($10) of resisting the allurements of the vice which lies in wait for

a Published by Houghton, Mifflin & Co. (Boston).

He wishes to acknowledge the cordial welcome given and assistance rendered by Dr. W. H. Tolman, correspondent of the Musée Social, New York; Dr. W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education; Talcott Williams, editor of the Philadelphia Press; Father Doyle, Paulist, secretary of the C. T. A. U. of America, New York; Father Eliot and Doctor Shephard, Brooklyn; Miss Claghorne; Rev. Mr. Curran, pastor at Wilkesbarre, Pa.; O. Stewart, member of the State legislature of Illinois; Al. E. Wilson, Chicago; Rev. Mr. Noon, secretary of the Massachusetts Total Abstinence Society, Boston; Mr. Pearmain, broker, Boston; Mr. Koren, editor of the reports of the Committee of Fifty; Doctor Beach, Binghamton, N. Y.; Mrs. Anna Gordon, vice-president, and Mrs. S. Fry, secretary, of the W. C. T. U.; the professors of the University of Pennsylvania; the members of the Lyonnaise colony at New York; Mr. Ingres, president of the Alliance Française, Chicago.

them. Each year the newcomers form a new mass of citizens to be converted to temperance, thus keeping in full vigor the zeal of the apostles in spite of all the victories which have been gained.

Moreover, the race which results from so composite a mixture of blood is particularly active and nervous, violently attracted, when days of dejection occur, by the excitement which alcohol procures for them and implacably vanquished by it."

The breaches thus opened by the existing conditions are still more widened by certain social customs. That of "treating," for instance, which corresponds to the "tournée" of our public houses, with this difference, that every participant there is obliged to return the courtesy immediately. There is also the peculiar institution of the “free lunch,” a kind of buffet gratuitously opened in the public houses to every buyer of a drink. The greater part of the dishes which are placed within reach of the hand are ingeniously chosen to excite an inextinguishable thirst in the customer who allows himself to be tempted by them. Yet they attract a great many poor people, happy to find for the small sum of 5 cents (price of a drink) the means of getting an actual dinner. From this point of view it can not be denied that here they really play a philanthropic rôle. At any rate this is a service which the public houses in the cities of the United States render and which attracts to them a great number of passers-by. For some inscrutable reasons, which are not those of economy, the municipalities exclude from the streets certain public conveniences. The saloons and the hotels are the only recourse. But in performing an act of charity they find their recompense, for there is more than one passer-by whom the sight or simply the odor of whisky holds for an instant near the bar.

In order to render clear the character which alcoholism assumes in the United States and the remedies which are necessary, nothing can be more instructive than to observe a drinker in the exercise of this habit.

Let us then enter a public house, a "saloon" of a large city, Brooklyn, for instance, and see how the Americans drink. Generally situated in a populous street, its outward aspect is somewhat engaging. The glittering architecture contrasts with the poverty of the neighboring houses; a screen before the door and curtains at the windows keep outsiders from seeing what goes on inside.

We enter; not a chair in the shop. The bar occupies the farther end, with waiters in white aprons who attend to the customers. On the walls are hung mirrors and pictures representing nude figures which the artists in this specialty have been obliged to sell there cheaply, there being almost no other place at present where they can dispose of them. On the counter are some gambling or slot machines where cigars or drinks may be won.

There seem to be very few people there and at first one wonders how the saloon keeper can make expenses. Two minutes of patience give us the key to the mystery. The customer does not remain. He enters, goes straight to the bar, drinks, and departs. Ten times in a few minutes the bell of the cash register machine has announced a receipt and yet the saloon always seems empty. Twice a day only, at lunch time and at the closing of the workshops, it will be filled for some time by the lovers of the free lunch, who come to dip into the dishes.

. Even the best known and most wealthy families are not spared from this scourge, and sometimes one hears it said that such or such a member of some family has suddenly disappeared from society, his future sacrificed to a sudden passion for alcohol. The only means of safety for him thereafter is through some of the agencies for redeeming drunkards.

On Friday a great number of the public houses replace meat with fish to satisfy their Irish Catholic customers.

« AnteriorContinuar »