THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL.

Taranaki Daily News, 5 March 1919, Page 7

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOL.

To the Editor, Sir, —In the last number of the Danville "Normal Instructor," New York', which is one of H.iie leading State school teachers' journals in America, the following extract appears: "In nearly every part of the broad British Empire provision is made in the official syllabus issued by the various educational departments for 'the children to learn in school hours the Ton Commandments. Many of the State schooi j authorities encourage the displaying of' the laws on the walls of the schoolrooms. Our attention 1b called to this by a circular from Wellington, New Zealand, sent out by the "Decalogue Committee," urging that the laws of that State be made comformable with those of other parts of the Empire, and provision be made for the repetition or memorising of these in the schools. They urge that 'a -knowledge of these laws is in the interests of Character-building and good citizenship, and is also an aid to good government'" As the children in the State schools of New Zealand are not taught the Ten Commandments, which are the foundation of our British laws, T beg to suggest that parents and school committees at once petition their own members of Parliament (and also candidates for same) to urge that the Government printer he instructed to print, and supplv FRER to all State school committees sufficient copies of the Ten Commandments for each of the cH=s rooms, with a recommendation that they be learned by the scholars. —I am, etc , A NEW ZEALANDER. P.S. —Nearly all New Zealand Education Boards allow school committees to display the Ten Commandment charts, but unfortunately these charts are unprocurable in New Zealand. —X.Z.