TEACHING PATRIOTISM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Are that forgetfulness of our past history and our great men, and that insensibility to the glory and greatness of our country, which are justly described in your article on "The Ceremonial of Tuesday" as national faults, without a remedy ? Patriotism, like every other virtue, needs cultivation. We need in England something equivalent to the celebration of Sedan Day and the Emperor's birthday in the German schools. It was my good fortune to be present at this celebration in a large sehcol in Berlin on the old Emperor's last birthday. The day was, of course, a holiday, but in the morning the children assembled at the school to listen to a most eloquent and stirring address, full of the most ardent patriotism and loyalty, on the rise of the new German Empire, which was given by one of the masters. The children were deeply atten- tive, and I am sure left with a far stronger sense of nationality than could have been gained by a whole course of history- lessons, even if the teacher were able (as he is not) to make the arousing that feeling his chief aim. A similar ceremonial took place in every school in the Empire, including the Yolks- schulen, thus reaching the classes who have so little chance of acquiring national feeling by reading.
Again, teaching the national songs is obligatory in the Volksschulen. Is the English child who learns only the bare pallid fact from his lesson-book, or the German who sings the "Lied vom Feldmarschall," likely to feel the keenest pride in (for example) Waterloo ? Something of this kind might help the ordinary Englishman to realise that he too is "a citizen of no mean city."—I am, Sir, &c., A NATIVE OF STAFFORDSHIRE.
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