The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1876-02-03
s3U wy 1SP0CtAU21y1
n. OBERMILLER.
NV. ROBERTSON.
. =. STATE or MINNESOTA, !
-, DEPT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
ST.. PAUL, Jan. 81, 1876.


|. STATE OF MINNESOTA,
49, DEPT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION,
81. PAUL, Jan. 81, 1876.
To N: O6erm';ller and J: n. RoS~tson, 81.
Cloud. MINI:
GENTLEMEN.-Y Yours of Jan. 18th,
containing statements respecting 4 public
school in st. Cloud, is received. Replying
to these statements in their order, the mere
fact that your County Superintendent Of
Schools is = Catholic 10 not an occasion
for animadversion. He should however be
. friend to our system Of free Publicsehools,
and it. - you affirm, he il moi, he ought At
once to resign his position. None but
faithful friends of this system should at
tempt its management.
Your second point il, that twice in =
week, from three to four o'clock P. NJ, Plot-
estant children are sent home and Cath.
olic priest teaches the catechism of the
Catholic church, in German. It il prob
ably assumed that this is permitted
BY section 16 of our school law. That
section, however, has no reference to rellg-
ious instruction. It means only that al
instruction in geography, arithmetic, &c.,
commonly given through tho medium Of
the English language, may, for ono hour
in day, be given through the medium Of
the German or any other modern language.
Your fourth item i, that the teachers
cannot pronounce the English language
correctly, and are not capable Of teaching
it. This fact grows out of the existence Of
the law in question. In order to make it
possible to give instruction in German.
teachers who can speak it are hired, in
spite of the fact that they cannot pronounce
English with the accuracy necessary in =
teacher. / know Of numbers Of districts in
this State where such il the fact: The
people insist upon this hour in day pro-
viso Of the law, thrown out ~ political
sop to our forsign-born population, and
they hire some one who speaks half in one
tongue and half in another and the
school neither learns good English nor the
correct use Of the foreign language mixed
with it. The German Empire is wiser
than this. 1t requires French to be dis
continued in the schools Of Alsace, and
Danish in the schools of Schleswig-Hol-
stein, in. which it was spoken before the
conquest Of that territory. German is the
language Of the schools of the German
Empire, and English should be the Ian
guage of the schools of the United States.
The abuses to which you refer should lead
TO the repeal of the law under which they
come into existence. No one should be
permitted to teach in our public schools
who cannot read English without any for
eign accent, in . natural and expressive
manner.
The parents of the children sent home
from your school while = Catholic priest
comes in aud teaches the catechism OF his
church have just cause for instituting = suit
against the trustees permitting the action.
II Ca,holic children were thus sent home
i1on any school and an Episcopalian OF
| = Baptist clergyman were permitted to "a
iato tie school and teach the catschism Of
bis church, Catholics woaA q oocs raase
the cry Of sectarianisn and iatnstice, and
/ should certainly join them il thlt ~
The Protestant partof syour conunnaityy
/ should illustrate the origin Of their nam.
and protest earnestly against the aasump
ton of your priest. If your statement il
correct, he has azrogated parochial author
ity over the school, and brought it unde'
the religious. control Of the Catholic
church. The Catholic church would IL
most anathematize any religious denomina
ton Of St. Cloud doing what you ny tina
[ church has done. =. go. 7,.e,.r..:
From your third statement, = q H.
character Of the books used In The school
it aPpeass that the Catholics il your; con