Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-08-28
MORAL TEACHING IN PUBLIC
SCHOOLS

Can morals be taught distinctively from
theology as represented by churches, creeds
and faiths? IS q question upon which a
great arm of the Church takes the mega
tive position emphatically. Mr.. Youmans,
in the Popular Science Monthly does a
service to his fellow men by discussing the
question as one of science. He very posi-
lively concludes that if the position of the
Catholic Church is sound, then the State
should summarily abandon the subject
But this all turns upon what is to be de-
fined as morals. Moral conduct has for
its aim human happiness. 1t is the motive
force for all human action, no matter what
crude, false and vicious ideas of happiness
may be entertained. But in regard to the
question of moral teaching, only that def
milton can be given to happiness that Pro-
fessor Youmans adopts" Happiness can
only be understood as the fullncss and har-
mony of life, aud the things, therefore, that
tend to render life full and harmonious are
the things that tend to happiness, and the
things, consequently, that morality as a
science should teach"
Certainly man, on his practical side,
does recognize the science Of morals as a
standard of human conduct for the attain
ment of happiness, distinct from the moral
codes that are based wholly upon religious
beliefs, though they may inculcate the
same general truths. This is recognition
of The inseparable relation Of the individ-
ual to social organism. As Professor You
mans puts it: "The harmony of individ-
ual life is consequently, in the main, a
matter of adjustment to social environ
ment." Social contact, then, discloses to
us the necessities Of action to the produc-
ton Of results that contribute to happi-
ness. Social attrition, we may well say, is
the stimulant and developer of the natu-
raj faculties. The code of right conduct
to be observed in this attrition is a
moral code, the aim of which is to enlarge
the capacity to enjoy and the ability to
attain the fullness and harmony of life"
Such code has for all time had existence
independent of spiritual teaching, and so
long as social forces operate to control and
mold men it will exist. The highest form
of this code may therefore be taught in
the schools as a science wholly indepen-
dent of any relation TO beliefs as to spir-
itual conditions and states. TIE rule
defining our duty TO society and to all and
each of its members is the result of the
teaching of experience in the pursuit of
the greatest happiness and the broadcast
personal liberty.
But while led into these reflections by
the premises of the essayist, we cannot
conceive of any more forcible and impres-
nable statement of the question than in
his conclusion that school teachers can
g expound the law of human life and we'll
being to their pupils" without the super
vision of priest or preacher. He says:
Let them show them what they are and what
they are adapted for, and how each kind ana
grade of hGppinesS-physical, intellectual
moral, personal, domestic, social-Gttanable 10y
human beings, depends on the wise and patient
exercise of specific faculties and power on the
steady pursuit of specific courses OF action. Let
him appeal less than has hitherto been done to
the coarse and often hurttul stimulus of indi-
vidual ambition, and more to the sense OF com
radsship and mutual goodwill which is never
wholly lacking in children.
Far, therefore, from the teaching of morals in
this sense being unsuited to the public schools
it is precisely this that they should most earn
estly concern themselves with. The system of
State education is upheld on the ground that
the stability of the State depends on the charac-
ter OF its citizens, and that this in turn depends
on education. prime inference to be
drawn from il is that whatever bears directly on
character and conduct should tske precedence,
in State education, of what only bears indirectly
thereon. And We hold not only that morals can
be taught apart from theology, but that the less
moral teaching is complicated with theology
provided only it Is delivered with conviction
the better effects it will produce. We want to
know the reactions that different courses of con-
duct produce in this world, not to speculate as
to the reactions they may produce in world of
wholly different constitution