BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 681, 27 June 1914, Page 7

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

TEACHERS' ATTTUDE (By D. M. Yeats, late He«d Teacher, Hutt District High School) For a long time I had been antagonistic to the introduction of the Bible into our State Schools, but, after con sideling the proposals made by the Bible in State Schools League, and forming my own judgment of the overwhelming testimony to its success in tboie States of the Commonwealth into which it had been introduced, I. more than a year ago, came to the conclusion that the proposal deserved my support. I notice it has been aaid that the testimony from Australia is worthless because it is given by teachers who say only what they think will please their superiors. With thia position I do not agree, and it cannot apply to testimonials given by others, such aa Sir Harry Rawson, Governor of New South Wales, who said: "The Publis Education Act showed that the statesmen who framed it had considered it very carefully, fairly and diecriminately, for although they had very strongly laid down the rule that religious instruction in State Schools was to be non-sec-tarian, they, had, at the , same time, opened the way for clergymen of every denomination to teach the children of their own Church." There are many other testimonies from people quite independent of the Education Departmenta in Australia, such as the Hon. J. T. McGowen, when Premier of New South Wales, and these opinions cannot be thrust on one side. The objection to our syllabus as overcrowed does not seem to me a valid one. There was a* time when our syllabus was rigid and teachers bad no choice of thfir own, but had to follow a fixed routine. Now, as pointed out by Mr Hogben, at the meeting uf the N.Z.E.I. in Auckland last January, the syllabus is merely a suggestion of what work should be done, not had and fast set of regulations in each subject. Mr Hogbeu's view is. borne out by the action of bur inspectors for the last few years, who have been in the habit of saying, "It is the qual | ity of work we are going to look at, not the quantity done " Every headmaster makes out his own general scheme of work, and it inspectors are satisfied with it, they examine within its limits. I have no hesitation, from an experience of 35 years aa a headmaster in our schools, in saying that the introduction of Bible reading as part of the literary training of our children, and the visits of accredited teachers, will not interfere injuriously with, the school syllabus of work. Something has also been said about the Conscience. Clause for teachers; but as they'are not being asked to teaeh religion, why ask for such a clause at all? They are only asked to have the Bible lessona in the same way that they have any other reading lesson, and deduce from them the moral and literary beautiea therein to be found. The .religious teaching will be given, under the League's proposal, not by State School teachers, but by the accredited teachers from the Churches, so that a teacher wilt be able to say, 'I have no responsibility: that lies with the Churches." My own opinion ia that if a Scripture reading lesson had to be taken, it would be taken with-all due m vereice and respect by almost all those engaged in the educational eer vice. The surely convincing to us that in the States in whieh the system has bee carried on in. the Commonwealth of Australia not one teacher has been heard of who refused, for conscouence sake to take the required share in the work nor has any demand for such a clause ever been tanade by the teachers and this notwithstanding that the teachers have their unicns which pat their, grievances be fore the public and Par* liament. What stronger refutation of the need of such a clause can be brought forward than this? The fact that appointments by committees would be affected by «tench-, er'a religion seems tome very farfetched. My own opinion is that, exactly the opposite effect will be produced, because* as every church will have the right to take its own share in religions teaching, there will not be the Bame necessity—as some allege has existed in the past—for appointing; teachers belonging to any particular church. 1 do not for a moment think that a teacher's religion would come into consideration with a school committee any, more than it does now. As a result of my 35 years' experiences I deliberately i express the opinion that if there bad been some Buch system, aa the League proposes, . included in our educational system, the benefits thereunder would have been much greater and the rising generation more moral than under a non-secular system. The suggestion that a Referendum is not suitable to a religious question because the religious aspect is regarded aa being held by the majority is first of all a plain admission that the present educational system is not approved by the majority of the, peopel; but secondly, the argu-, ment has no force because there is. no'attempt udder the proposal to force the minority' to do anything to which they object. The parents of those children who do not want them to read Bible lesson i or to be visited by ministers will ndt be interfered with in the least. The minority will have its rights respected, just aa at the present time, but with the difference, the majority will have exactly the same rights. There is no compulsion in the matter at all. The suggestion that the teachers are to be compelled to give religious lessons is met with by the fact that they are not asked to do anything of the sort. They are asked to give reading lessons taken from the best literature

in the English lanßuagA. 1 have gone carefully over these vieadihg lessons in, the Queensland books, studying them with a view to seeing 4how I would take them tfitMt |l|bb. |1 find no difficultyintreating theta as? ordinary reading lessons, giving any necessary explanations as to meanings without any religious comment at all; and I believe there are very few teachers in the whole of New Zealarid who would find any more difficulty than 1 myself. Even for its literary value alone teachers Should welcome the introduction of the Bible into our National Schools! I believe that thirty per cent, of our teachers are heartily in' accord with the proposals of the Bible in State Schools League. .