The influence on national life of military training in schools / by T.C. Horsfall.

  • Horsfall, T. C. (Thomas Coglan), 1841-1932.
Date:
[1906]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: The influence on national life of military training in schools / by T.C. Horsfall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

    6/14 (page 4)
    as ])()ssil)le, tlie l)oys l)oni (if them miisi: liave some siiecial treatment to make good tlie loss of the civic training of liome and to counteract that of memhershiji of a society whose needs differ nuicli from those of a normal community. W e know, too, that in a large j)ro])ortion of the homes of the children who go to our ]iul)lic elementary schools, the struggle for daily hread. and too often, also, the influence of the daily beer, ]irevent the parents from forming any strong and intelligent conce]ition of duty to the community in which their children can ])artici]iate. If, then, most of the ehildren attending elementary schools are to feel a desire to live the lives of useful citizens, they too must receive some special training at scliool. The training needed must be com])rehensive : it must in- clude some instruction respecting duty towards our neighbour and duty towards the mass of our neighbours—our country: but it must include much more than instruction given in words, which cannot influence the average child very strongly. Such instruction must be accom])anied by action which the cliild knows to be intended to fit liim for the doing of things, the usefulness of which he can understand at least ])ai’tly. So far as instruction respecting duty to neighbours is^ concerned, something is already done in many schools, and a good deal is done in some schools ; but 1 do not think that duty towards the country as a whole is taught with sufficient cleai ness in many .schools of any grade. Our English shyness, our reluctance to s]ieak to anyone about the subjects which we believe to be most important, and the great difficulty which we most of us find in speaking to children about such subjects, owing to our belief that we may do haim and not good—^this feeling, which is so common in English people, too often ])ievents children from receiving the instruction, the advice, which to many of them would make all the difference between noble and ignoble life. We know that the reluctance of ])arents and leachers to give young ]ieo])le neces.sary information respecting the relations of the sexes often has the worst results. T believe that failure to tell children of the duty of each of them towards his country is also very harmful. Of course, the giving of such instruction must be guided hy good sense and tact. Mr. Ki]iling, in “ Stalkey & Co.,'’ gives us an example of how not to do it in the address of his offensive M.P., who, if I rememher rightly, waves the country's banner in the face of reticent English lads. Exaggeration and all other forms of insincerity must be carefully avoided, or boys will be made to regard as