The Education Question

New Zealand Tablet, 31 December 1908, Page 9

The Education Question

T; m^ Ui ; o e f teemed , Ilocal1 local extemporary, the"" Otago Daily lime,, is apparently convinced that our'education system «s y^s^* 1 w, re ?^ d t° reii^ Bdt is *** S; S?ffcTv£ hat - 1S lts attlt «de towards religion? too tai as the system is concerned, it simply -Whores tp torflr^ '? he yo«ng idea' t 0 pass a^otaolTportion of -its most impressionable years (as secularists and agnostics do) without the thought of God or of mora obh ■ gation from God's law But this is° i^S c ?ical effect, : the attitude of the secularist and the agnostic' ? represents so far as religion is concerned, the ideal of education that the secularist and the agnostic^o^ put mto operation for their children ; -and, no doubf E S£iorv° r Sma^ ion ° f o^pSu^iotlntirSy satistptory.^ The system is professedly secular: it is in EtS/° - ar - aS it^° es ' Wl a «st and agnostic Andthe matter is m. no way affected by the fact that tho system.so far condescends, to -the prejudices bf^Chrttiari people as to graciously print the name of God (where it Ms" e^°^ Ce iM lit6rary extracts> C wiS^ ca^S to be'Hvei to P< S#* instruction For %hf r a * If cMdren within the . school -buildings, .l^or the God, of the system (even though. His spelled with a capital G) niay-so far L^^ the system 's ed ri e in^^ OT Murabo-Jumbo, of a mere .Jgmeri^of the imagination, - As:td"the religious insSuc tjon: it is not^ S o far Jaw goesKpernfel SirS - the time that the system is in progress-that is within school hours When the system -bgins op^ns? S£ Alnughtymust move -out;- and He is: :lSr^.^'B o^ ur^d the^system-has packed : u P ; its flag and^ls-w^ Like secularism and agnosticism, tho system has. no God' and no moral law whose sanction is of God. Arid yet We are asked -to suppose that it is noutral, and holds the balance evenly as between creed and creed-between rehgion and non-religion 1 D re