The Henson Journals

[348]

Monday, November 30th, 1925.

I would have his outward fashion and mien, and the disposition of his limbs, formed at the same time with his mind. 'Tis not a soul, 'tis not a body that we are training up, but a man, and we ought not to divide him.

Montaigne "Of the Institution of Children".

The vice of our education is its lop–sidedness. In our eagerness to increase information we are expanding our curricula until there is no room for anything that does not 'count' for examination. The intellectual training is over–emphasized, while the moral training is neglected. And the result is seen in a waxing multitude of citizens who are nothing else than educated savages i.e. their moral development has lagged behind in the process of their education, & remains arrested at a rudimentary stage. America, which led the modern world, in the disastrous experiment of nakedly secular schools, is first disclosing their malefic consequences. It leads the nations now in lawlessness and criminality, but its enormous material wealth, and its immunity from the political perils which shadow the European peoples, make its influence almost irresistible.

[349]

I spent the morning in writing the article on Religion in the Schools for the Evening Standard, & despatched it to the Editor. The weather throughout the day was so boisterous that I was strongly tempted to "cry off" from the S. P. G. meeting at Stockton: but it will not do to shirk engagements too often, & as Leng was disposed to make the journey, I determined to keep tryst. So, having equipped myself with notes for a Chairman's address, which (as Bishop Aglionby had "fallen through") was to be more than conventionally substantial, I left the Castle at 6.15 p.m., & motored to Stockton. There was much snow on the road, especially between Rushiforth & Sedgefield. However, I reached the Jubilee Hall without misadventure. There were about 200 people at the meeting, of whom three–fourths were petticoated. The clergy mustered in fairly strong number. The "deputation" was a quaint little man named Vaughan Williams, who is now an incumbent in England, but had once worked with the "Bush Brotherhood" in Australia. He spoke for 45 minutes in a strain of peddling jocosity which nearly drove me frantick! I gave Wyldbore Smith and Canon Sykes a lift back to their respective parishes, & got to Auckland Castle about 10.15 p.m.

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