1
/
of
0
Boston, New York [etc.] Ginn & Co
Moral training in the public schools; the California Prize essays
Moral training in the public schools; the California Prize essays
Regular price
$0.00 USD
Regular price
Sale price
$0.00 USD
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Quantity
Couldn't load pickup availability
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free.
This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
Ill WE are just now in the midst of an apparent deluge of corruption in public affairs. I am inclined to believe that the American people have not become morally degenerate suddenly. It is one of the chief tasks of each generation to withstand the evil it finds in civic, social, and private life. During the Revolutionary period, and again during the Civil War, it was the custom to decry the evil days upon which the nation had come, when greed and selfishness were as pronounced as loyalty and heroism. There is a remarkable constancy and continuity in the quality of the moral life of peoples. The succeeding generations are bound together through imitation, custom, and tradition, just as in physical form and feature they are held by blood heredity. This relative fixedness is a fortunate thing. It means that whatever reform is undertaken, to be worth while it must not be a superficial affair, else it will be simply like a ripple on the surface of a great stream: it must be such a reform as will influence the springs of human conduct. It means, too, that whatever is done that influences in a profound way the hearts and actions of men will be conserved in the lives of coming generations. Our problem is deep as life itself, and must reach out into the ages. I do not mean to deny that the amount of civic wickedness at present is especially great. It may be due to a fresh infection, like the spread of a contagion. Besides, /1 the chances for graft and self-seeking in this, as in every transition time, may be unusually numerous. If opportunities help produce a genius, they will also make a villain. But is not the apparently aggravated corruption due largely to the fact that a few strenuous souls have forcefully laid bare the conditions existing below the "surface stream, shallow...
This is an OCR edition with typos.
Excerpt from book:
Ill WE are just now in the midst of an apparent deluge of corruption in public affairs. I am inclined to believe that the American people have not become morally degenerate suddenly. It is one of the chief tasks of each generation to withstand the evil it finds in civic, social, and private life. During the Revolutionary period, and again during the Civil War, it was the custom to decry the evil days upon which the nation had come, when greed and selfishness were as pronounced as loyalty and heroism. There is a remarkable constancy and continuity in the quality of the moral life of peoples. The succeeding generations are bound together through imitation, custom, and tradition, just as in physical form and feature they are held by blood heredity. This relative fixedness is a fortunate thing. It means that whatever reform is undertaken, to be worth while it must not be a superficial affair, else it will be simply like a ripple on the surface of a great stream: it must be such a reform as will influence the springs of human conduct. It means, too, that whatever is done that influences in a profound way the hearts and actions of men will be conserved in the lives of coming generations. Our problem is deep as life itself, and must reach out into the ages. I do not mean to deny that the amount of civic wickedness at present is especially great. It may be due to a fresh infection, like the spread of a contagion. Besides, /1 the chances for graft and self-seeking in this, as in every transition time, may be unusually numerous. If opportunities help produce a genius, they will also make a villain. But is not the apparently aggravated corruption due largely to the fact that a few strenuous souls have forcefully laid bare the conditions existing below the "surface stream, shallow...