AMERICAN EDUCATIONISTS’ OPINIONS ON THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1239, 30 April 1914, Page 3

AMERICAN EDUCATIONISTS’ OPINIONS ON THE BIBLE IN THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

(To the Editor.) Sir,— The following opinions by leading educationalists of America on the Bible and the public school are of interest just now. Dr Nicholas Murray Butler, L.L.D., Ph.D., President of Columbia University, New York, at the National Education Association of the United States, 1902, said : “I contend that we are not only impoverishing life and literature by the neglect of the English Bible, but that we have already impoverished life and literature. Knowledge of the English Bible is passing out of the life of the rising generation, and with this knowledge of the Bible there is fast disappearing any acquaintance with the religious element which has shaped our civilisation from the beginning.” Columbia University has 907 instructors and 9,840 students. Clifford Webster Barnes, Executive Chairman of the International Committee on Moral Training. Chicago, 111., in a paper on ‘‘Moral Training Through the Agency of the Public Schools,” at the National Education Association (of teachers) of the United States, which met at Denver, Colorado, in 1909, said : *‘Eackof parental authority, ... demands made by our modern commercial and social life upon the beads of the family, or of the passing away of those good old Puritan customs, such as morning and evening prayer, . , . the school is becoming more and more in loco parentis, both as regards the soul and the mind of its pupils. Thus, from far and near, a cry goes up to make the school a greater safeguard of the nation’s virtues, . . . Increase its efficiency as an agency for moral training and development, and the development of character. Speaking from personal investigation, carried on in many schools throughout Great Britain, I can say that no teacher, in my hearing, ever spoke slightingly of

Bible lessons, but on the contrary they were unanimous in praising their ethical value. . . . Secu-

larisatiou of the schools would be a menace to the national life.” The late Wilbur S. Jackman, in an article in the “Elementary School Teacher,” April, 1906, advocates emphatically for school children lessons ou the life and character of Christ. The demand for religious education in the schools has received impetus from philosophy, from the study of the history of mankind, and is a necessary part of child life, especially during adolescence. The following is the school rule for Bible-reading in the city of New York, U.S.A., a custom which has probably been observed for three centuries; “All the schools of this city (New York) . , shall be opened with a reading of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment.” And for 278 years the Bible has been read in the schools of Massachusetts, U.S. A. The State law says : “A portion of the Bible must be read daily, without note or oral comment.” Many schools repeat the Lord’s Prayer.—-I am, etc.,

A New Zealander.