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Show ' Educate the Catholic Masses. (Mosher's Magazine.) The great majority of the Catholic children leave school at the age of 12 years, 'therefore very little time is allowed al-lowed in which to train them to habits of reading, and the. best possible use should be made of this short time. If nothing more were ' accomplished for such children than to teach them to read and instill . into, their hearts and mind's a love for good literature, there would be vastly more educated men and women among the Catholic masses. A taste for reading inspires a desire for; self-education, and self-education is possible by good readings We need a system that will hold as j many as possible of our young people together to continue in some measure the usefulness of school training. The following plan of school extension, exten-sion, which seems practical and feasible, feasi-ble, is suggested in Mosher's Magazine. It has allurements for the enthusiastic, earnest lay leader and may commend itself to the priest who is the natural and authorized leader of Catholic education: edu-cation: At the close of the school season each year a large number of young people cast aside their books never to take them up again for serious reading or study, and they are glad of the release from the restraint of school life and the irksomenees of school tasks. These young people should be organized into reading clubs before their school life ends. Simple, interesting courses should be planned in history, literature, biography, science and such other subjects sub-jects as would come in the order of time in school life. The boys and girls might be organized in separate classes, each class to have an educated leader who may be a layman or woman, a sister or a priest. Instead of the Sunday Sun-day school, which seems to be held in such aversion by the Catholic youth after Confirmation, these young people might meet for an hour on Sunday afternoon af-ternoon as reading clubs. The success of tnese clubs would depend upon the tact and ability of leaders. There are over 4.000 Catholic elementary elemen-tary or parochial schools in the United States. Provided an average of ten pupils from each school were enrolled ' in this system each year it would make a total of nearly 50,000. Just reflect on the influence such a force would exert ex-ert in creating and elevating a Catholic Catho-lic reading public! j |