Science in National Education 



multiplicity of institutions that we keep most of 

 them in a state of chronic anaemia. 



Much of the bitterness of this long conflict has 

 been due to an exaggerated idea of what teaching 

 in day schools can do to control the subsequent 

 beliefs, as distinct from the general attitude of 

 mind, of the children concerned. It is too often 

 taken for granted that, whatever be the psycho- 

 logical conditions outside, certain lessons given in 

 day schools not only leave an indelible mark on 

 the mind, but furnish the basis for definite adult 

 belief. The facts do not confirm this assumption. 

 The saying that " whoever controls the schools, 

 controls the next generation " is not borne out by 

 experience. Those who from profound religious 

 conviction and a sense of missionary duty have 

 assumed that partial control of the elementary 

 school system was indispensable to the influence 

 of the Church upon the next generation, seem 

 often to base their view upon a priori reasoning 

 and not upon a dispassionate examination of the 

 actual facts. Schools can do a great deal, but they 

 cannot withstand the spirit of the time. The wind 

 bloweth where it listeth. Under the conditions of 

 modern life, religious truth has everything to gain 

 from freedom and much to fear from official 

 association with irritating forms of control. Where 

 the teaching of the school is in harmony with the 

 disposition and temperament of the child and of 

 his home circle, it deepens and fortifies conviction. 

 But it can do little against the influences of life 

 outside, especially the influence of the home, if 



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