# Lehre und Wehre_St. Louis Missouri_September 1855_S275
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

On the History of the Roman Catholic Associations, etc. 275

...to set beside the picture of zeal sketched above another picture, which makes the former easier to understand. Thus the "Wahrheitsfreund für katholisches Leben" [Friend of Truth for Catholic Life], etc., which appears in Cincinnati, writes as follows in its issue of May 3 of this year, under the heading "A Brief Word on the German Catholic Parochial School System in the United States": "Apart from the fact that Catholics can make little or no use of the so-called free or public schools, although they must also contribute their share toward maintaining them, and are accordingly obliged to maintain their own schools at their own expense: still, in proportion to what is done for the church, little is done for parochial schools, and we cannot conceal from ourselves that in general far too little attention is paid to this most important matter by our spiritual superiors. Considerably more is done for the education of girls than of boys; for there is a fair number of so-called teaching sisters, and more or less great care is always bestowed on them and their institutes, although not all that glitters is gold there either. From some schools and institutes conducted by sisters of a religious order, Protestants often derive greater benefit than poor Catholics do.

Our boys' schools and parish schools of both sexes are often ill-served, and this mostly simply from a lack of good teachers who have a genuine calling to the profession of education and the training needed for it. One is only too often compelled to entrust the highly important business of educating children to young men who often have little or no pedagogical training or vocation for it, or who lack both entirely. Should it not be possible to remedy this oppressive state of affairs as well? Or should there really be no means available at all? We believe that this ought not to belong to the realm of the impossible.

Nothing is certainly to be gained with teaching brothers who were not raised and educated in the German spirit and who possess no thorough knowledge of the German language. The German Catholics in the United States of America have, as we have already indicated above, accomplished much and great things in a few years. We count many, in part large and flourishing, dioceses with various charitable institutions — seminaries for priests, monasteries, colleges, and so forth, veritable educational establishments. Should not the establishment of normal schools for teachers also be possible? The benefit of even a single such institution would be very great for the German Catholic population of our new fatherland. Such an institution, certainly meeting with general approval, would soon branch out, and one of the greatest needs — that of good schoolteachers, suitably trained for our country and our circumstances — would be met. The difficulty of obtaining hopeful, persevering candidates for the teaching profession for this purpose could likewise be overcome.

May this brief word, as a word spoken in season, not die away wholly unheeded! Or may its good intention at least not be misjudged! When one looks at the unruliness and coarseness of our German ("Catholic") male youth, a certain uneasiness involuntarily steals over us, and the observant friend of mankind asks with foreboding: What is to become of our youth? — If things are to improve, we must have better parochial schools, and for that purpose we need better teachers."