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Page 15
The knowledge aim.--First of all, life demands _knowledge_. There are
things that we must know if we are to avoid dangers and pitfalls.
Knowledge shows the way, while ignorance shrouds the path in darkness.
To be without knowledge is to be as a ship without a rudder, left to
drift on the rocks and shoals. The religious life is intelligent; it
must grasp, understand, and know how to use many great truths. To supply
our children with _religious knowledge_ is, therefore, one of the chief
aims of our teaching.
Yet not all knowledge is of equal worth. Even religious knowledge is of
all degrees of fruitfulness. Some knowledge, once acquired, fails to
function. It has no point of contact with our lives. It does not deal
with matters we are meeting in the day's round of experience. It
therefore lies in the mind unused, or, because it is not used, it
quickly passes from the memory and is gone. Such knowledge as this is of
no real value. It is not worth the time and effort put upon its mastery;
and it crowds out other and more fruitful knowledge that might take its
place.
To be a true end of education, knowledge must be of such nature that it
_can be put at work_. It must relate to actual needs and problems. It
must have immediate and vital points of contact with the child's common
experiences. The child must be able to see the relation of the truths he
learns to his own interests and activities. He must feel their value and
see their use in his work and in his play. This is as true of religious
knowledge as of knowledge of other kinds. The religious knowledge the
child needs, therefore, is a knowledge that _can at once be incorporated
in his life_. To supply the child with knowledge of this vital, fruitful
sort becomes, then, one great aim in the teaching of religion.
But knowledge alone is not enough. Indeed, knowledge is but the
beginning of religious education, whereas we have been in danger of
considering it the end. Many there are who _know_ the ways of life but
do not follow them. Many _know_ the paths of duty, but choose an easier
way. Many _know_ the road to service and achievement, but do not enter
thereon. If _to do_ were as easy as to know what to do, then all of us
would mount to greater heights.
The attitudes aim.--Life demands _goals_ set ahead for achievement. It
must have clearly defined the "worth whiles" which lead to endeavor.
Along with the knowledge that guides our steps must be the impulses that
drive to right action. Besides knowing what to do there must be inner
compelling forces that _get things done_. The chief source of our goals
and of the driving power within us is what, for want of a better term,
we may call our _attitudes_.
Prominent among our attitudes are the _interests, enthusiasms,
affections, ambitions, ideals, appreciations, loyalties, standards, and
attachments_ which predominate. These all have their roots set deep in
our emotions; they are the measure of life's values. They are the "worth
whiles" which give life its quality, and which define the goal for
effort.
Chesterton tells us that the most important thing about any man is the
_kind of philosophy he keeps_--that is to say, his _attitudes_. For it
is out of one's attitudes that his philosophy of life develops, and that
he settles upon the great aims to which he devotes himself. It is in
one's attitudes that we find the springs of action and the incentives to
endeavor. It is in attitudes that we find the forces that direct conduct
and lead to character.
To train the intellect and store the mind with knowledge without
developing a fund of right attitudes to shape the course of action is
therefore even fraught with danger. The men in positions of political
power who often misgovern cities or use public office as a means to
private gain do not act from lack of knowledge or in ignorance of civic
duty; their failure is one of ideals and loyalties; their attitude
toward social trust and service to their fellow men is wrong. The men
who use their power of wealth to oppress the poor and helpless, or
unfairly exploit the labor of others to their own selfish advantage do
not sin from lack of knowledge; their weakness lies in false standards
and unsocial attitudes. Men and women everywhere who depart from paths
of honor and rectitude fall more often from the lack of high ideals than
because they do not know the better way.
The goal and the motive power in all such cases comes from a false
philosophy of life; it is grounded in wrong attitudes. The education of
those who thus misconceive life has failed of one of its chief aims--_to
develop right attitudes_. Hence character is wanting.
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