INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXPERTS ON THE BIBLE & PUBLIC EDUCATION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1242, 7 May 1914, Page 4

INTERNATIONAL EDUCATIONAL EXPERTS ON THE BIBLE & PUBLIC EDUCATION.

(To the Editor.) Sir. —The following authoritative opinions given by educational experts are of value just now : This extract is Irom the committee’s report of the International Enquiry on “Moral Instruction in Schools,” held in London, 1908, and attended by educationists from Franc.-, Belgium, Germany, United States, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Professor Sadler, University of Manchester, edited a report of the conference. The extract reads : “But so far as Great Britain is concerned, the committee are impressed by the earnest conviction with which so large a number of the teachers, and especially of the women teachers, both in out elementary and our secondary schools, speak of the power of the religious lessons to inspire a high moral ideal, and to touch the springs of conduct. We are assured by our investigators and by some who have given oral evidence, that the withdrawal of the religious lessons from the schools (and in still a higher degree the prohibition ol acts of common worship) would be regarded by multitudes of teachers as a calamity hurtful (as they believe) to the children, injurious (as they know) to their own spiritual life.” Two English opinions are worth quoting, viz. Mr John Shawcross, University College, Oxford, England, re ports cn Bible teaching in the elementary schools: “And nowhere is this intimate and essential connection of religion and morality, of right action and true devotion, so forcibly, and at the same lime, so simply proclained as in the history of the Jews as told in the Bible ; in no book could the teacher find the conception of duty as the ‘stein daughter oi the voice of God’ presented so impressively, or in a manner so calculated to appeal to the heart and understanding of children. In a book ot this unique character, a book moreover towards which there exists au untrained, almost innate sense of reverence in the mind of every chi :I, the teacher possesses a lever cf moral s'liii 1 !I’' 1 ’' which he cannot afford tc ..isp> with ” Miss C. E. Grant, Devons Roan, L.C.C. England, Infants’ Schom, said :—“The natural vehicle lor moral teaching is surely the P Ye lesson. From whatever plane of criticism the teacher may view the Bibie stories, they are incomparable for young cb'Lien. They are simple, clear cut, dealing Wuh primitive .).■■■ '”d -‘■-h Tne stories of the childhood of the race, . . . The quiet religious halt hour iu the morning affords a unique opportunity for that spiritual ‘heart to heart’ communion between teacher aud pupil, which no other lesson or ‘subject’ can supply . . • The religious lesson must never be lost to England.’’—l am, etc., A Nkw Zkai.andkk.