Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1871-05-06
HOW SHALL WE EDUCATE.
OUR CITY SCHOOLS.
"Father Finneean,s Reply..
NuMBER III. q

| EatuCT Il PiHucSauc hCpi!s
sGs1sks NUMBER III EA
MEssRs. EDITORS: When in my last COM
munication, asked for the name Of zone
OF Very Many,"I i had no intention Of in
| quiring whether he was a doctor, a profess
| sor, minister of the Gospel or as"Vox ct
praeterea nihil." AS had come out in
propriG persona, / thought it only fair
| that my adversary would do the same. 80
much for his first and second paragraph.
HOW TIE QUESTION sTANDs?
have from the beginning, insisted on
the right of parent to educate his chill
dren in whatever manner he pleases, and
also on the injustice of compelling any
man to pay taxes for the support of a
school from which he derives no material
advantage. is it not well known fact,
that many good and worthy men, even in
Knoxville, viii never consent to send
their children to the common school,
and is it not an outrage upon these to take
their money, and expend it in building
and maintaining schools they cannot pa
tronize? Taxation without representa-
tion is also one Of the causes Of revolution.
.wsz OBJECTIONS. 7 .ofto9
They say the question, as raised by
Catholics would lead to the establishment
OF State church, that Catholics demand
these separate schools merely for the pur-
pose of prOpagating the Catholic religion
in America. We must indeed confess that
We are very anxious to perpetuate our re-
ligion by all honorable means; the relig-
ion that does not work to propagate itself
may be religion in name, but not In fact.
We ask for no subsidy, We demand no
grants, we merely seek for our own money
that we have paid into the treasury, in or
der to expend it as we deem best for the
education Of our children.
AA ee. sECTARIANIsM. essz ae
The writer also protests against my
claim, because it would lead to the estab-
lishment of sectarian schools. Now, is the
commen school system at present in oper-
alton non-sectdridn? / most emphatically
answer, no. First: 1t is impossible to inn
part knowledge Of history, poetry, philos-
Ophy, art or sciences without bias. The
teacher must have opinions, and cannot
fail to tinge his teachings with them, and
according to my distinguished opponent
even the teaching of "siient influence" is
sufficient to impart or uproot belief. Sec
ondly: common schools as now managed,
are sectarian because Of the text books
which are used, and which very often con-
tain false statements with regard to the
Catholic Church and Catholic history.
Thirdly : there is the Bible question; is it
Bible which some do not believe to be a
true version?
SUNDAY SCHOOL.
1t is argued we can teach our children
their peculiar form of religion on Sunday.
We are not satisfied with this, arrange
ment. We believe that certain things are
necessary for the souls salvation. These
things are very numerous and require con-
stant and careful inculcation, and no
school can be satisfactory, except where
the teaching of these things go hand and
hand with secular education.
STATISTICS.
{ This is question, as the writer has,
very judiciously observed, of great diff
Guilty, and when appeal to statistics,
merely accept the weapons used by my OPP
ponent. In the communication Of yesteT-
day, table was given showing the rela-
tive number of nlegitimate births in Cath
olic and Protestant cities. The only thing
the table proved was that in Prussia, the
Chapelle, are better than any of the Pro-
testant ones. They show excellently
well on the Protestant column, but
then > the observant reader will |
remark that, although in Protestant Prus- |
sia, they are known to all as Catholic cities. |
might also remark that my quotations
were all taken from Protestant authorities,
while presume that the statistics of zone
Of Very Many" were found in sNights |
among the Romanists," written by the
Rev. M. Hobart Seymour, of the church
of England. The following is q complete
table Of the percentage of illegitimacy, in
all the chief countries of Europe, both
Protestant and Catholic.