C 1 Appendix D
COMMENTERS
with Names starting with
C 2
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Right Rev, the Lord Bishop of Clifton (R.C.),
"I beg to thank you for the copy of Duty and Discipline ' papers which you have sent me for perusal. I need hardly say that with nearly all that I have read in them I am quite in agreement. What I miss in them is that little attempt seems to have been made to trace to its causes the sad deterioration in the national character which nearly every writer complains of."
The Hon. G. R. Coldwell, K.C.,
Minister of Education for the Province of Manitoba, Canada.
"I am directed by the Honourable the Minister of Education to say that he is entirely in sympathy with the purposes of the 'Duty and Discipline' series, and that he approves thereof."
Miss Collin,
Hon. Sec. to the Church Army League of Friends of the Poor.
"The Friends of the Poor feel very strongly that much of the present unemployment is due to the lack of home discipline in early life. It is difficult to persuade parents to have their children trained to skilled work if it entails their absence from home or any financial sacrifice."
The Rev. W. E. Compton, late Head Master of Dover College.
"I am not less impressed than others by the lack of parental discipline which is now so conspicuous. It seems as if parents leave it all to the school to train their children in obedience, in morals, and in religion.
" As regards the poor, we seem to pauperise them in regard to their parental responsibilities as much as in any other way. We are leading them to think they need only bring the children into the world and the State must ' do the rest.' "
H. S. Cooke, Esq., M.A. Oxon.,
Master of Method in Education, University College, Reading.
"Thank you for your book of Essays on Duty and Discipline. I earnestly hope that they may be widely read by all classes of people. There are to-day few worse signs of national weakening than the growing and pernicious impression in home and school that children should never be thwarted, their impulses allowed free play, and the value of perseverance as a necessary virtue need not be insisted upon.
Such is, indeed, little real preparation for life and livelihood where self-abnegation, self-control, and mastery have to form essential fibres in the character of the individual. I wish success to your movement."
Lady Coote,
Diocesan President of the Mothers' Union for Ireland.
"I have the greatest pleasure in giving you my name to add to the list of sympathisers and supporters — for I do admire this valuable movement. I think these leaflets form an excellent series."
The Hon. J. Mildred Creed,
Member of the Legislative Council of New South Wales.
"I thank you for the book Essays on Duty and Discipline' in relation to the training of children. I have long felt strongly on this subject, as of the highest national importance and the basis of public well-being.
"I am of the opinion that the neglect to exercise parental control in New South Wales—as is also the case elsewhere—has an important influence on the birth-rate of the State. The conduct of children under sixteen years of age—as is obvious to every observant person —in the streets, in public resorts, on steamers, in trams, and other public vehicles, is such as to render the prospect of a family repugnant to thoughtful men and women. They realise that, even if they themselves do not omit to carry out their duty as parents when the children are in their homes, they cannot avoid their intimate association in the schools and playgrounds with others whose guardians entirely neglect their parental duties, and that therefore their efforts to bring up their offspring properly will oftentimes be defeated.
"Enquiry will show that a considerable proportion of the ill-behaved boys and girls are pupils of the schools under the Department of Public Instruction, and that the control of these children, even if fittingly exercised during the hours of instruction, entirely ceases on their leaving the precincts of the schools. When remonstrated with on their misconduct by a bystander, they are almost invariably insolent, as no physical coercion can be exercised by such a person, however gross the occasion, except at the risk of police-court pro¬ceedings initiated by a foolish parent on the probably untruthful statement of the child. Few men care to -run the risk of such annoyance ; therefore disorder and misconduct continue entirely unchecked.
"Frequently offences which should be dealt with in the Police and at the Children's Courts are committed with impunity. The children consequently acquire the idea that there is nothing but their own will and desires to rule them, so that in after-life they become lawless and not infrequently criminal as a result of the absence of proper restraint in early life. I have before suggested in public utterances that this might in a large measure be remedied were a law passed by which, when youthful offenders are arraigned, the adjudicating magistrate, having evidence that the offence was due to neglect of parental control, might direct the parent or guardian to show cause why he should not be punished as well as the child, as being directly responsible for the misconduct upon which a conviction has occurred.
"Part of the duty of Truant Officers of the Department of Public Instruction might well be, not only to see that all children attended a fitting school, but in addition to insure their good behaviour in the parks, streets, and public vehicles, and not permit them to run riot, often committing grave offence, without, as at present, any serious attempt being made to check them. It is neither possible nor would it be politic that this duty should be performed by the police, but it might well be made a portion of the educational system of the State."
The Right Hon. the Earl of Cromer, P.C., G.C.B., O.M., K.C.S.I.
"My time is so much occupied, that I fear I cannot write at any length on the very important and interesting question to which you have drawn my attention, But I wish to express my very entire sympathy with the objects which you and your coadjutors have in view.
"I trust you will not think it foreign to the subject if I add that, although we naturally have to occupy ourselves mainly with the moral training and discipline of the children of this country, the subject is very far from being British, in the strictly insular sense of the term. It is of a more far-reaching character. The greatest of all Eastern problems is to discover some means by which Western civilisation and education can be introduced into countries such as India and Egypt, without undermining the moral basis on which the whole fabric of society rests. For obvious reasons, the difficulties of finding any solution to this problem—if, indeed, it can be solved at all-are enormous ; but there is one thing we can do, and aught to do, and that is to spare no efforts in order to strengthen the moral fibre of our own children, some of whom will be destined in the future to exercise, both by precept and example, an abiding influence on the characters of those large Eastern communities whose interests are, to a greater or less extent, committed to our care, and whose institutions and habits of thought are now in a state of flux and transition, which renders them highly impressionable and receptive."
Commander Crutchley, R.N.,
Secretary of the Navy League.
"I think it would be rather difficult to over-estimate the value of the work that has been so splendidly initiated. It is no small undertaking to bring subjects such as are dealt with in the 'Duty and Discipline' series before the men, women, and children of this country. One of the hopeful signs of the present time is the interest taken by the young people, let us say, in the Baden-Powell Scout movement, and also in Lieutenant Barrett's Naval Brigade boys. It would almost seem that the rising generation is beginning to recognise for itself that the future of the Empire will rest in its hands. The work you are now doing must necessarily help the movement materially, and I may say, on behalf of my committee, we wish you every success in your patriotic endeavour."
The Right Hon. the Earl Curzon, P.C., G.C.S.I.
"Your series of leaflets strikes me, if I may say so, as very admirable. I think we want a great measure of self-discipline in an age the prevailing characteristic of which every one of us will admit in its relation to ourselves to be the pursuit of material comfort and the shirking of inconvenient obligations."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
