Education Issue at Home.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 9, 5 October 1907, Page 7

Education Issue at Home.

: —» —: • SECULARISM. A TRIANGULAR CONTEST. By Telegraph.—Association.—Copyright. London, October 3. Tho Right Rev. E. A. Knox, Bishop of Manchester, speaking at the Church Congress at Yarmouth, argued that the country did not desire secular education, despite the recent vote of. the Trades Union Congress. There are at present three distinct proposals for the solution of the education problem in England. (1) The Anglican and Roman Catholics contend that the children should ho taught the religion of their parents as part of tho normal school course. This as deuominatioiialism, and is objected to, by the Nonconformists arid Secularists on the ground that the taxpayer should not be called, iipon to pay for the teaching of any particular form of religion. (2) The Nonconformists propose that the children should be given simple Bible teaching—an undenominational form of religion including those parts of tho Christian faith concerning'which all the Churches are agreed. .The Anglicans and Roman Catholics are opposed to this on the ground that by ignoring doctrines ■which they consider fundamental,. it must give the children the impression that such doctrines are of secondary importance. They also contend that the proposed undenominationalism is in reality tho religion of the Nonconformists, and that this solution of the difficulty is equivalent to the establishment of Nonconformity. (3) The Secularists pronose to settle tho difficulty by the exclusion of all religious instruction. This party has been in the past a comparatively smalt minority, but tho recent controversies have increased its numbers. Many Anglicans would prefer the'secular solution (No. 3) to undenominationalism, and many Nonconformists would also prefer No. 3 to granting State aid to denominationalism. The Bishop of Manchester (Dr. Knox) is one of the most strenuous opponents of the education policy of the present Government.