The Child in the Midst / A Comparative Study of Child Welfare in Christian and Non-Christian Lands

CHAPTER IV.
THE CHILD AT SCHOOL

“Come, ye children—I will teach you the fear of the Lord.”

Four little boys less than ten years of age came trudging over the muddy Korean road three long miles to school. In their chilly, little, bare hands they carried bowls of cold rice for dinner. But cheerfully they marched along, for the daily six-mile walk took them to and from the mission school, and oh! what a wonderful privilege it was to be able to study,—a privilege not enjoyed by all the boys of their village.[51]

The closing session of a school for Jewish children in the heart of Asia was being held, and many mothers listened with awe and admiration as child after child took part in the simple exercises. “See,” the mothers exclaimed to each other, “see how our daughters are learning to read, instead of growing up to be like donkeys as we have done!”

A woman in the capital city of Persia, head of a Bahaist school, insisted on sending her little daughter to the American mission school, paying all tuition charges gladly. “Lady,” she said to the teacher in charge, “whenever I come into this school my life is renewed.”

Over the African trail came a young man who had given his heart to Christ and was now ready to enter the Bible Training School in order to fit himself for a life work that no foreign missionary could hope to accomplish. Earnestly he pleaded with the missionaries to let him bring his little eleven-year-old wife to be taught and trained so that she might some day be a true help-meet in his work. But there was no boarding school for girls, no available place for the child. Think what that future home and work might have been had the little wife received a Christian education!

A missionary was returning from an evangelistic tour over one of the lonely roads of Palestine. Suddenly he was accosted by several armed men in disguise, who demanded that he should promise to grant their request before it was stated to him. He naturally demurred, but, becoming convinced that they were not robbers, he finally consented, realizing that his journey could not otherwise be continued. Whereupon they demanded that certain mission schools which had been closed for lack of funds should be re-opened, promising to give as much as possible towards the necessary sum. “It is like depriving our children of bread and water and air,” they exclaimed, “to deprive them of the opportunity for religious teaching and useful education.”[52] A peaceful missionary held up by a set of masked bandits in a Mohammedan land, who demanded, not his money nor his life, but a Christian education for their children!

Loud and clear and insistent are the voices from country after country. In many tongues they call to us Christian women,—“Give us a chance to learn, let us children have what our parents never had, put books into our hands, train our hands and eyes and ears and hearts as well as our minds, show us how people who love that Jesus whom you tell about may read of Him and may make their lives good and happy and useful!”

It may be the honest conviction of many that with advancing civilization and the great political, social, and educational awakening in many lands, there is no further need for mission schools or for pushing missionary educational work. Japan has her public school system with six years of compulsory school attendance, and higher courses combining cultural with practical education in a way that Western nations might well follow. China has done away with the old educational regime and is patterning her new system after those of Christian lands. In India we hear that “Mr. Gokhale’s bill for universal primary education has stirred the whole country and will be a constant issue until it is an accomplished fact. Already the government has voted to increase immediately the number of primary schools from 120,000 to 210,000.”[53] The demand for education of girls as well as of boys in Persia, Turkey, and Egypt has caused a marvelous overturning and re-arranging of custom, prejudice, public opinion, and government action. In view of all this and much more in the same line, has the time come when the matter of education can be left in the hands of the awakening East, and does our obligation to the little ones of non-Christian lands cease at the door of the school room?

In order to arrive at a fair answer to these questions it might be well to study and discuss some divergent views on education and then to learn how these questions are answered by those who were born in non-Christian lands or who have lived and worked there for many years.

Some Views on Education

“To educate a girl is like putting a knife into the hands of a monkey.” Hindu Proverb.

“The hope of our country is in the education of our girls, and we shall never have statesmen till the mothers are educated.” A Persian Nobleman.

“Men are superior to women on account of the qualities with which God has gifted the one above the other.” The Koran, Sura 4.38.

“No scheme of education for primitive races can succeed that neglects the woman’s influence in the family and the tribe.” E. W. Coffin.[54]

“When a man does not ask, ‘What shall I think of this and of that?’ I can do nothing with him. Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.” Confucius Quoted in “Oriental Religions,” Samuel Johnson.

“Education should lead and guide man to clearness concerning himself and in himself, to peace with nature and to unity with God.” Froebel.

“The aim of female education is perfect submission, not cultivation and development of the mind.” Confucius.

“Not knowledge or information, but self-realization is the goal. To possess all the world of knowledge and lose one’s own self is as awful a fate in education as in religion.” John Dewey.

The Head Master of an English school declared it to be his ideal of education to create an atmosphere of loyalty that should teach the pupils to adapt themselves to the sphere in which their lives should be cast, at the same time giving them self-reliance through the knowledge that they are responsible for doing the things that are worth while, and arousing their ambition to achieve that which is highest and best.

As a practical basis for the study of our topic, “The Child at School,” write out if you will your own definition of the scope and ideals of education, drawing up a list of those members of the human family who would benefit by such an education.

Referring again to the question of whether our missionary obligation ceases when the child’s education begins, we must first of all realize clearly how recent has been the awakening in most of these lands, how appalling is the illiteracy, how long it will take the most advanced government to meet the need without assistance, and how infinitely more a Christian education will do for the little ones than a merely secular education can possibly accomplish.

From the new Cyclopedia of Education[55] the following latest available statistics are taken:—

Quoting further from the Cyclopedia we learn that “in Turkey, India, and China we find a high illiteracy among the males, and an almost complete illiteracy among the females. The least illiteracy today is to be found among the people in the countries to the north and west of Europe, and of Teutonic or mixed Teutonic stock. It was in these countries that the Protestant Revolt made its greatest headway and the ability to read the Word of God and to participate in the church services were regarded as of great importance for salvation.”

Sir J. D. Rees, an official of high position and distinction in India, makes this significant statement in his volume on “Modern India,” dated 1910—“While it is true that only half the boys of school-going age were following a course of primary education when the last census was taken, it is extremely improbable that in any other part of Asia anything approaching that number has been ever attained, or in any Oriental country under European control.”

Let us go back to Japan as to the one of all non-Christian lands that has made the greatest advance along educational lines. After a visit to Japan with many opportunities for observation and study of the subject, Miss Kate G. Lamson says:[56]

Education for the masses has long since justified itself to the Japanese. That education is universal and compulsory is abundantly proved by the crowds of school children seen in every part of the country. This naturally leads the observer to question the need of outside help, especially missionary help, along educational lines, and outside of two or three large centres our Board has applied itself largely to the development of church organization and evangelistic work. Yet the experience of years has revealed an imperative need of the missionary even in the ranks of education in Japan....

With schools everywhere, under an able and full staff of instructors, with up-to-date appliances for every branch that is to be taught, moral and religious training are not provided for, and the well-polished husk of educated manhood and womanhood without the inner life is the result. The dangers attending non-religious education have not failed to make themselves apparent to the watchful Japanese....

In every land we believe the hope of the nations lies largely in the training of little children. Christianity in Japan has laid hold upon this and has set the pace in the establishing of kindergartens....

Although education in Japan is compulsory, it is a fact that it is beyond the reach of the poorest people. This anomalous situation is caused by the charges for tuition and books imposed upon all scholars. These charges are so high as to be prohibitive for the very poor, and the result shows in the absence of their children from school. In this lies a direct invitation for missionary effort.

These words from a Christian observer and student of missions find an echo in the remark of a leading Japanese, himself a non-Christian, to one of the team of workers of the Men and Religion Movement:—“I am convinced that Japan must become Christian or she will never become a great nation.”

So much is being said and published about the wonderful developments in China and the new system of education that is taking the place of the old, time-honored memorizing of the “Four Books” and the “Five Classics,” that we need not here go into the subject in detail. Where shall the teachers be trained? But we must stop to query:—Where is China to procure the hundreds and thousands of teachers who are needed to train not only the children at present but the teachers of future generations of children? For many long years she must look largely to missionary schools to prepare her future educators. From a report on the Educational Work of the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions we quote the following:

The wisdom of the West in matters of courses of study, together with methods of teaching, discipline, etc., are brought directly from our best institutions and freely offered upon the altar of Chinese regeneration. The results of these years have also proven that these best things are adapted to the young Chinese minds, and that they appreciate them when they once come to know them. The products of these years show that our Christian schools have been getting hold of some excellent material, and that there is such true worth and high possibility that all effort to develop these bright minds and sincere hearts is well worth while, and that in doing so a great service is rendered to China.... A number of young women of fine type have been educated in the schools for girls, who are proving themselves apt to teach and work for their own people in the conduct of boarding and day schools and women’s classes.

So highly does the Indian government prize the work of the missionary schools that each of them which is held to the required standard of efficiency receives a grant for partial support. The American Board Bulletin says, “Our tremendous school system in Ceylon of more than ten thousand pupils is carried on practically at government expense.”

In a village in India the parents’ request for a school was answered by the statement that if such a school were opened, the Bible would be taught in it. Quickly the reply came, “Teach your religion, but educate our boys.”

When the century opened, Persia and Turkey were asleep. Suddenly came the awakening, the reaching out for something new and different, and, as in the case of China, one of the first thoughts was,—Our children must be educated. Instinctively they turned to the missionaries who for long years had quietly, steadily, sown the seed, prepared literature, set up printing presses, trained preachers and teachers. Boys and girls began to flock into the mission schools.

“Fathers sent pleasant messages,” wrote a missionary in Teheran in 1911. “One said, ‘Your girls make better wives and mothers and in every way better women, than others.’ Another, ‘I wish my wife had been educated, but I am determined my daughter shall be.’ An Armenian of wealth and influence is reported to have answered to a remonstrance against sending his little daughter to us instead of to their national school: ‘Did I ever refuse to give you money? I will continue to help support our national schools, but I must send my daughters (he has five) where they can really obtain an education. They can learn in one week all you can teach them about going to theatricals and dances.’ A friend was telling us that her sister would send her girls to us. ‘Why?’ ‘Because every Moslem in this city understands that your school is the only one where girls really learn. Why should my sister be the only fool?’”[57]

These messages are significant in view of the fact that in a brief time seventy girls’ schools were reported to have sprung up suddenly in Persia’s capital city, with an enrolment of five thousand pupils.[58] But scarcely half a dozen of those at the head of the schools had ever been to school themselves, and the testimony from all over Persia was the same as that at the capital,—“The missionary schools are the best.”

Here is the eager call from Turkey:[59]

The gradual awakening of the villages to the need of better schools increases yearly the calls for teachers. The Sivas Normal School reports that the work of the past summer was very hard. “We were obliged to refuse calls for more than forty teachers, not a few of them from places to which we had never supplied teachers. The following quotation from a letter from the Armenian Bishop of one of our large cities is a fair sample: ‘We wish to call for the Armenian schools of our city the following teachers: a principal, a lady principal, teachers for Armenian, Turkish, and French, and three teachers for scientific branches. If you have among your experienced teachers or among the new graduates persons to recommend, please inform us at once in order that we may invite them.’”

One hardly knows whether to laugh or to cry over the Kurdish father up in the wild mountains of Kurdistan who brought his boy to the little school taught by a native helper, whacking him with a stick to make the reluctant youth walk in the paths of learning, while he declared, “I am not going to let my boy grow up in the street.”

When great governments, ecclesiastical authorities, wealthy noblemen, and fierce warriors from the mountain fastnesses all clamor for what the missionary schools can do for their children, have we a right to refuse their request? Can we claim freedom from responsibility?

Rather let us glory in the unparalleled opportunity for giving to the needy children of non-Christian lands that which has proven to be the only true source of mental preparation for life-work,—a Christian education. Hear the testimony of Dr. F. W. Foerster, author and special lecturer in Ethics and Psychology in the University of Zurich, a man who began his educational work with sympathies strongly socialistic and entirely aloof from all forms of religion. In the author’s preface to his book, “Marriage and the Sex Problem,” he speaks with no uncertain sound of his own experience and conviction.

The author of this book comes from the ranks of those who dispense with all religion. But as the result of long experience, theoretical and practical, in the difficult work of character-training, he has been led to realize for himself the deep meaning and the profound pedagogical wisdom of the Christian method of caring for souls, and to appreciate, through his own experience, the value of the old truths.... He has absolutely no doubt that modern education, in discovering the extraordinary practical difficulties of character-training, will be increasingly cured of its optimistic illusions and led back to an understanding and appreciation of Christianity.

How about the children themselves? Do they enjoy and appreciate school privileges offered them by the missionaries, and does the work show results that are worth while?

If, as Miss Lamson claims, “the hope of the nations lies in the training of little children,” there is hope for Japan in the ninety-eight mission kindergartens that are maintained by fourteen Protestant Boards and have an enrollment of four thousand and sixty-eight children. The report of the Kindergarten Union of Japan is a most fascinating volume, with its presentation of opportunity, need, method, and the result of teaching the tiny children who are to be the future parents, teachers, and leaders of thought and action in that Empire. A few extracts will give a little idea of what is being done for the children and through them for their homes and friends.

The kindergarten in our country today is at its most critical stage, and therefore needs the best and most profound thinkers who can put their ideals into practice most tactfully. This must be accomplished by native Christian kindergartners. Education without religious foundations is like an egg without the germ of life in it. Most of our public and government kindergartens, which have the purely so-called educational views of today, are leaving the very springs of child life untouched, and therefore are not fulfilling the real meaning of education. They are not disciples of Froebel, because he based his philosophy on the Christian faith. (Fuji Takamori of Holy Love Kindergarten, Methodist.)

A teacher writes, “A little girl whose father and mother were Christians entered our school. At first a little nursemaid brought her, then her grandmother came with her. This grandmother was a devoted Buddhist. She would not even look at the foreign teacher, much less listen to anything being taught, but at last she began to listen, and eventually became convinced that she needed Christ for her Saviour. Today she is a truly converted woman.”...

The blessing asked at the noon lunch seemed to make a deep impression on some children, and doing it at home attracts the parents’ attention, so that a number of them have been known to come to the church services to hear more about the meaning of prayer and praise. (Mrs. A. D. Gordon.)

We are told that the songs, the games, the stories, and sometimes the prayers, are household exercises in many homes. On a recent morning, which we spent by invitation of the wife of the Governor in her garden, the little son of the family, not yet of kindergarten age, took an active part with the other children. His mother told me that the older sister comes home and “plays kindergarten” with her small brother, and that, when they have guests to entertain, the children are often called in to give some kindergarten exercise. I did not tell her how strongly I disapprove of “showing off” children before company. I only prayed that “a little child might lead them.” (Mrs. Genevieve F. Topping, of Morioka Kindergarten, Baptist.)

An amusing incident happened one day when the children were off on an observation trip. They had to stop to let a detachment of soldiers pass, and spontaneously burst out singing “Soldier Boy, Soldier Boy,” to the great amusement of the soldiers. Then they all saluted the officer in proper fashion, but he only smiled. “Sensei, we saluted politely, why didn’t he return the salute?”

Later as the soldiers were drawn up in circular formation on the parade ground, the children said, “Oh, now they are going to play just as we do in kindergarten, let’s watch!” So the expedition which started out to study insect life changed into a lesson on soldiers and their absolute obedience to orders. (Alice Fyock of Sendai Aoba Yochien, American Episcopal.)

A similar Kindergarten Union is being formed in China, and from all missionary lands comes the urgent cry for trained kindergartners who can not only start schools, but, far more than this, can train native kindergartners to take up the work. It would be hard to overemphasize the importance of this particular service which missions are rendering.

Dr. Thomas M. Balliet of New York University voices the opinion of modern educators when he says, “All the more recent studies in child psychology emphasize the great plasticity of the early years of childhood. The habits which the child then forms, and the attitude both intellectual and emotional which is then given him, are more lasting and more determining for his adult life than was even suspected some years ago.”[60]

After a hasty mental review of what has been studied in earlier chapters regarding the home life and training of little children in non-Christian lands, it is surely a mild statement to make that the Christian kindergarten is an absolute necessity if these little ones, so cunning and capable and helpless, are to have any chance at all for proper development. The words “Christian kindergarten” are used advisedly, and agree with utterances of experts such as Elizabeth Harrison, who says,—

“The foundation of the kindergarten is based upon the psychological revelation that, if man is the child of God, he must possess infinite possibilities, and that these possibilities can only develop as he, man, makes use of them—that in other words, man is a self-making being, that his likeness to the Divine Father consists in this power within him to unfold and develop his divine nature.”[61]

Students of primitive and backward races tell us that the small children show as much promise and as many signs of undeveloped capability as do children of civilized lands, but before many years a cloud seems to overcast their minds, while selfishness and sin and passion take possession of their moral natures. Never again is there the same chance to make them what they might have been, as there was during those first early days when the kindergarten should have opened wide her doors to receive them. This argument would in itself seem sufficient to urge missionary Boards to speedy, thorough action in this matter, but there is another far-reaching argument to be considered. All through the East, wherever there are missionary kindergartens, mothers come to them to learn how to train their children, and countless homes have caught and passed on a reflection of the Christ life because of what the mothers have heard and observed and what the children have taken home with them. Make a flying trip to the Fuchow Kindergarten and watch “the irrepressible John.”

“This little lad’s father died, after a period of faithful service in Miss Wiley’s kitchen, and when the widowed mother came back to Miss Wiley from her country home to earn a living for herself and John and baby Joseph, John was already master of the situation and of his mother, and enforced his will on that by no means weak-minded woman by kicking, biting, pulling her ears, and similar methods. Now Miss Wiley is a famous trainer of boys, and she soon taught the young mother that the masculine will is not necessarily law at the age of two plus; the kindergarten carried out the same idea, and now John devotes vast energy and determination to the shaping of inanimate clay into pigs and other fascinating things, and treats animate nature as a well-mannered and kindly little gentleman should.”[62]

It would be most interesting and instructive to make a tour of missionary kindergartens for the purpose of seeing how ingenious our missionary teachers are, how they adapt Froebel’s ideas and methods to the most extraordinary circumstances which would have made that great educator gasp, how they must not only translate and adapt songs and tunes and games, but compose and create and invent,—all in an acquired language which has perhaps been only recently reduced to writing by some pioneer missionary. It might be pertinent to ask if all Women’s Boards provide the kindergartners and other teachers whom they send to the foreign field with a first-class outfit of all needed material, and if they remember that such an outfit needs to be replenished at least as often as a similar one does in the home land. It is not fair to require a missionary to make bricks without straw.

A visit to a West African Kindergarten will show an inventive and adaptable missionary in charge.

We have a new primary Sunday-School room which will be my kindergarten. It is a low wall covered by a round thatched roof high enough to leave a good big space for air. The floor is mudded and marked in squares. It looks very nice, but I shall take pains to get the cracks filled up, for they catch too much dirt and jigger seeds. The benches are not yet made, so the children who were cleaned up for Sunday went after leaves to sit on. The classes have to go out under trees to separate, but it is a great improvement upon the dirty and dangerous saw pit where they have met for so long. The only advantage about the saw pit was the roof for shade and pieces of wood and logs to sit upon. The big folks have been getting most of the attention and all of the advantages, but we feel that the children should have most because they are in the future. They do not show such shining results at once, but work with them will lay a foundation which is greatly needed here for really effective work....

I have a box cupboard, a sand table, two long low tables marked with squares, and strong benches. I have not much kindergarten material, but I do not need more at present. My first “gift” is a basin of water. They march in singing “Good morning, kind teacher” (only I am thankful to say the Umbundu words leave out the “kind”). Then we sing another song or two, and the prayer with bowed heads. I have no music, so I have to learn the tunes myself before I come to school. The children are the dearest, cunning things and they do want to learn.[63]