South Bend News-Times, Volume 33, Number 91, South Bend, St. Joseph County, 31 March 1916 — Page 18

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Madame de St. Point, Distinguished Social Philosopher and Poetess, Makes an Ingenious Argument That We Should Take the Education and Confrol of

Children Entirely Away from Parents to Secure Their High hest evelopment ßy Madame Valentine de St. Point he Brilliant Parisian Poetess, Grandnisco of the Great Lamartine. r rHE child has In nearly all ascs been regarded a3 a thins; belonging exclusively to its family, to thoao who have brought It into the world. It teems to parents that the normal and Datural act of giving life to a being secures to them the exclusive property of that being, to which they accord no serious rights and from which they expect every duty. Thl3 Is a traditional human error which has brought untold misery and degradation upon the human race, and which I feel it to be my most solemn duty to combat with all my strength. Up to the present the father has been the head of the family, rulin? sometimes his wife, but especially his children, crushing them very frequently under a iyrannical yoke. The conception of the ancient Hebrew patriarch and the Homan Paterfamilias has dominated modern society to Us sorrow up to our day. This hard paternal yoke is regrettable because it annihilates the personality of the child. The Independent children who seek to sscape from it are net only pursued by the anger or curses of the father, but often, even, by legal powers which are at the command of the head of the family. In our days paternal rights have been somewhat restricted, although. In every civilized country the law reives theoretical control of the father over hie children up to the age of twenty-one. Our inherited ideas or the paternal authority also give tho father an enormous power, which varies considerably according to locality, and is perhaps greater in France than in America. In earlier generations the ather had the power of condemning his yon to lifelong disgrace for some trldln.j escapade, and this idea la still strong with us. The perils of a disobedient son are less grave than they used to be, although with uh the father still possesses the atrocious power of destroying the youth of the son by shutting him up in a house of correction until his majority. The Father Ruin3 His Son's Mind and Body Thus tho law. which no longer recognizes a father's right to kill hi? offspring as in Roman time3. still gives him the right to destroy his mind and body to a considerable degree. The father can deprive his son of everything that makes life worth living. He can condemn him to live with harsh and degraded person?, and all that simply for some boyish escapade. Usually the children thus punished had only shown some independ rnre and lack of discipline, which are often marks of a strong character, which would later make them develop into capable citizens. This power', conferred upon one human being to tyrannize over another rein? in process of formation, who should receive every respect and every consideration, is a social infancy. Side by side with the father".- power, affirmed by law. another menace of childbirth is the more or less occult influence of the mother. For the ordinary mother, the child Is fragile toy hlch can r.eer be surrounded vith too much care and love. It 1 a hot-house plant over which she nrnt watch incessantly, both physically and moraliy. She envelops the child in a netwo-k of tenderness-gentle, subtle. tem;ou6--in which It grows weak. Its natural daring:, its youthful recklessness, is hampered. It is i entrained when it should expand. What the father does not command the mother obtains by entreaty. The proof of this is that in later life, whea adult persons are brough-; to a condition of misery or weakness, the image of the mother appears to their weakened minds and even the word ' mother" usually comes to their lips. How well is our French conception of motherly tenderness Illustrated by that favorite picture. "Madame Yizee l.e Brun and Her Child." by herself. It ts a beautiful picture, hut It reveals marvellously the clinglnjr parasitic type of motherly love, which holds its child so closely as almost to choke it. and which Is really one of the greatest moral weaknesses of our nation. Thus parents. In different ways, abuse their artificial rights over their children, without recognizing any other obligations than to keep them alive and to :hooe a calling for them. The majority af parents even aeera to regard tuesa

"Madame Yigee Le Brun and Daughter." 'This beautiful picture reveals marvellously the clininij parasitic type of motherly love, which holds its child so closely as almost to choke it." Painting by Mme. Vigee Le Brun.

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: x.:.v. - jV.-v "--'-Vv ' k rrf a. j . , - t ' . 'XZ?-S.'-V duties as a favor, fro which the children should le eternally grateful to them. Then, parents often do the greatest wrong to their children by choosing a calling for theru before they are bom. instead of waiting until the right career is susspstrd by their natural aptitudes. In fact, it is not usually in the interests of the child that this choice is made, but most commonly to satisfy the paternal or maternal vanity or the tastes of the parents. Even when this choice Is not a brutal contradiction of the legitimate aspirations of the child, the wishes of the parents continually thwart and confuse its development. The?c wishes prevail oer the aptitudes of the child, and turning him from his true career condemn him to perpetif discontent In an unsuitable walk of walk. That is a crime of "lese-lndividuality." As humanity only acquires value through the Individual, through the greatest possible number of Individuals working and creating, the family by les senltig the strength of an Individual, by the evercise of its legal powers, commits a crime of "lese humanity." As against the duties of children toward the family, it i3 now time to assert their ri.ihts. Those rights are more sacred than the ancieiit and superannuated rights of tho family over the children, because "they are Important to the future, and the future 1? nor- sacred than the past. It is iniquitous that in a time when love of liberty and hatred of tyranny have overthrown kings and emperors, the tyranny of the famllv bLould still exist. I do not. of course, propose to abandon all control and leave the child to its own instincts. The child, being In process of formation, cannot know itself, and therefore Is Incompetent to ruide itself. It has only vague and fleeting desires. It must be instructed concerning lu on nature end Uught to reveal itlf.

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:i-" ' .... . - 1E A. '.VA-!-'.-. , - . . . . v.. . f . - ? ( h.-it WttKy. h v ;',; c-- i Painting by Greuze The child should be developed In ae- ( cordance with its possibilities. It must be watched and guarded by an awakened mind, enger to discover these possibilities and to help in their expansion. Hut in no case, not even under pretext of the most stubborn defiance of discipline, should one attempt to enslave the child. To be a good educator one must put aside one's own character and one's own preferences. One must 2H out of one's self, in a snse, and throw a mature mind into the soul of the child. Now. it is impossible for a father who receives his despotic authority by inheritance and finds it enforced by law and custom, to put his child above himself and not below himself. It is impossible for the father not to hohl himself Tip an a model. "Try to be like m, my son," he will always say. In effect. It Is equally Impossible for the mother not to Fee again in her child when it is grown the baby who once had need of her feeble physical protection. The father has too niueh power, the mother too. much tenderness, for the child that they mentally consider their property. In reality, to whom does the child belong? If It be the offspring of a race of savages it belongs only to Itself. But when the child is the offspring of a civilized family it should be considered as belonging to the community which has created the civilization In which It is destined to share. In any case, It never belongs to its parents, who have only dene for It what the animals do for their young, what their own parents did for them. 1. e., to give them life. For this act the parents deserve neither .pratltude nor condemnation. They certainly do not deerve gratitude for the care and the comfort they rcay have given to their children. Animals Instinctively and naturally sacrifice themselves quite as much as human ings for their young, from whom they Copyright. 1818, by th Star Company.

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"The father had the power of condemning his son to life-lonff disgrace for some trifling escapade. He still possesses the atrocious power of destroying the youth of his son by shutting him up in a house of correction until CJltion from whatever family they com. his majority' u Fhould guide them Into callings suitable to their abilities and their tastes, so as to obtain the best work from them.

will certainly receive nothing". Those are the facts concerning; the physiological domain. As to the instruction and education which parents usually give their children, that is also a normal act, since these things are the creation of the civilization by which the pareut themselves have heneflKd. The latest comers should receive the benefit of all the human labor which has prepared the world for them. The child owes a debt not to his family, but to the community, to do his share of work for civilization. On the other hand, parents who count on the help of their children In their old age are perfect egotists. They have no right to claim it as a debt. It is only a charity, like that which the State gives to paupers and sick people. The Rtate has acquired Innumerable rights moral rights and fiscal rights, the right of law making, the riht of punishing and rewarding, the right of life and death, all rights which restrict the liberty of the individual. It has also recognized certain duties toward the poor and the sick and the weak, but it has neglected the most important duty of all that which It owe to the child. It controls everything In the lives of the finished Individuals who make up th present, and it seems to take little Interest in the child, who Is the most necessary element of the future. The State, with us and other countries. has established compulsory instruction, but this means little when the power of education and direction Is delegated to the famfly, which Interpret this powr according to its egotistic sentiments. The child represents the future of the community, the element of Invention, of creation, of continuation and of growth. It is. therefore, right that the nation should assume the exclusive education of the child. Tiae State must watch over the physical development of the children, not only because in a healthy body energy is gratr than In a weak1 one. and productive labor is in prcportion to this Grat Britain Uijbu RtrvtL

TAe Father's Curse."

Spartan Mothers Watching Their Children Flogged In Sparta boys were publicly flogged at the age of eight as a teat sf courage and the mothers calmly looked on to see that their children bore themselves bravely." Painting uy Herbert Sidney K '.1 l-h i ' in 1 : A - : ? ,'.v k x K ,a4 . v 4 - rifdUfeüÄ.iäi i- 5,--! i Painting by Rubens Abraham Exiling Hagar and Ishmaeiy "The conception of the ancient Hebrew patriarch possessing the power of life and death over his family and children in fluences us enormously to-day energy, but also because aick and incompetent persons will he a burden to the Stat, which will be obliged to find an asylum for them and support them. """The State mr,3t watch over the rnorai development of its children, in order that they may not he ruined by the en-ors and the hereditary delects of their families, la order that there may not sUnd between their budding mentality and the col ectlve idea of progress, that static element, that dead weight of family traditions and prejudices, which would check thejr progre-ei. At present, under our mixed system of education, the parents undo In the evening what the State hai done during the day in Us schools and colleges of all kinds. The struggle Is perpetual and infinitely injurious to the mental Btabfiity of the child. The State ought to take care that every child hajj the same opportunities of edu-

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Absolute personal disinterestedness, th attentive indifference: of strangers, are alone capable of properly Judging, controlling and directing children according to their capacities that Is to fay, of putting every one In the riht place, where it cun produce the most for the greatest pood of the nation and the greatest happiness of the individual. We have no need to pro this by experience. Ancieut Greece, to which we are so often obliged to turn to find ex amples of beauty in those magnificent centuries when phyiscal and moral beauty reached its highest development, created a sublime harmony in education All the children were taken entirely from their parents In the period of Athenian greatness and sent to the gymnasia. In another Greek State. Sparta, thy carried the system of physical education to Its highest perfection. The idea was to make the boy strong, healthy and brave, and "neither paternal tyranny nor maternal tenderness was permitted to hinder this purpose. At the annual festival of the "Diamastlgosis" in Sparta, boys of eiht underwent a test of courage by being whipped before the altar of Artemis. A nv?ent painting shows us this interesting cere mony with the boy In the middle distance prone on the ground. The executioner stands ever the boy holding a long double switch, ar.d by the altar one of The priests holds up a statuette ot the goddess that was supposed to become suddenly heavy If the lahins was not severe enough. The Spartan mother calmly looked on to fe that their childrerr bore themselves bravely. The Ideal Athenian System of Education. ThA Athenians combined intellectual with physical prfrction In their rymr.a?ia nnd this should be o';r aim In education to day. The rriOilern Ftat shou'.d r-est.iMisb these gymnasia and widf-y tbir '-rote. Th- Stat' should receive n',1 the chiMeit of tt;e nation from their Mr,h. rare U r them as babies in nurs-rlos. and thn pass them on to the gymnasia. Thrt they would .-rr.d t'-r hiHi'.ood a:;-l their youth. Thjre -hey v,oi'.d !pv-!o;. freely and harmoniously. In these gymnasia, situated far from the towns, in a va-t oprn cp.if. ir. a beautiful country, -v-ry bra:.ch of ed :- cation would be included, lr.f-luiir'g sport? and In?' r.r-t ioi, , rnmi'!, ."hnia!. S'.ier.tillc. phiio.-ophlc and ar tit tic. The s.iir..1 Tü' ra'i'y. the sam- hyii the same' cnc"p'o;i of the r.ation would form in the gy:r.:.us:a cltlzn v:h hm geneous rouIs. A youth, tronr. virile. dvoii r.f a'1 sentimentality, v.oi.li ccr:.e nu of :b'c Institutions, nnd. ;--ei:ir.:: n .i'h th-r own generation, rai.-e t:.- 1 r . t - : 1 r : ' mrHi and d v r: a :r. i " lvl ' th" which should be the firt f ;i: : - principles of ratior.a; educnt i-u T:.-;-' w o'jli plare that na'lrn withou q-. -'.o'. at the h.ead of the civilize 1 worl 1. Thr exists aly o:. 'ay i r . H'.l?: he 2treat modor.'i dream of -;ualiy. aa that is. to ma'-.e al! human h'vr? U r: Mr:h cc':p.1 in the treatment thy rcflv from th rom:r.u:.lty. The :: necessary for this js The sur pres.-ion of the family. Pqu'il'.ty for men ho ar-5 necessarily d'.ffrTit -an or.iy 'X.s.t ' the form c.f e juality cf advar.t.ig-. a:. I the mear.s of development offered 1 : society. In brief, "the child of the Sta"" v. b the triumph r the individual for t - greatest benefit of the community, viül he the i.oa! rraliation rf the r: iJe'.il of equality thro-:h whv-h a!-,:.-tu;naUit can ljzme tuJiuc.

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