* * * * Youth comes first. " It is
quite easy. We teach it in the elementary schools," said a Japanese who was asked for the secret of the ardent patriotism of his people. As things are in England, most children leave most village schools without any pride in their school, without any sense whatever of what the team spirit means. They leave school at fourteen, without the least desire or capacity to co-operate to a general aim, and spend the next two years in puffing away in cigarette smoke what rudiments of moral or intellectual discipline and knowledge they may have acquired. And yet elementary school teachers are one of the finest classes in the community ; and do more good than most of us. Nevertheless, leadership to particular constructive ends must come from outside. Else how can a hard-worked parish schoolmaster help becoming parochial under the compulsion of unceasing work and narrow experiences, and the threats of the inspector ?
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