St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-08-05
MORAL TRAINING.
To the Editor of the Globe.


To the Editor of the Globe.
AS you have recently declared the
school question to be 1.-The Live Cues
tion," l trust few observations on the
anybOdy's patience.
III. B. Crandall in last Thursdays
GLOBE asks the following question, and
answers it IN the affirmative: SIS it
really expedient to combine religious
with secular education in our public
schools?" While l fully agree with him
that it is eXpedient to combine re-
ligious and secular education, believing
that there can be no true education
without the combination of moral, in
tellectual and physical training, yet l
do not see how this is possible under
our present state-controlled educational
sy TEN. The trainers of our federal
and state constitutions took par
ticular pains to make it impossl-
BILE. The early settlers of America
were, many of them, refugees
from religious persecution and OBJ
nOxious state creeds, hence they know
the value Of religious liberty and they
adopted constitution for these United
States guaranteeing forever religious
freedom to all their citizens, and it is
useless to deny that this has been one
of the chief causes of the wonderful
growth and prosperity Of the country.
1t is the land of the free" But as
soon as the necessity of combining re-
ligious and secular education is admit
ted, the further fact, which many
are cOntending for, becomes EVIL
Innf nlrpnlu fhat tho n6ua0i inn
of children is not the business
or duty of the state at all.
When our forefathers forbade the tate
to teach religion, and secular and re-
liglous teaching being inseparable if we
would educate Alright, they cut off from
the state the power of educating at all.
The truth is. that while there are GER
tain things (the postal service. for in
stance) which the state can do better
than any individual or private corpora
ton, the education of children is not
one of them. The feeding, cloth
ing and educating of children
are essentially and emphati-
cally parental duties, which nature her
self has imposed. and the political state
is no more competent to educate child
rem properly than she is to beget them.
If it be misfortune for child who has
lost his natural parents to become de-
pendent upon the state for his food and
clothing, it certainly is a greater mis-
fortune to depend upon the state for his
education. / say this law of parental
fitness is established by nature itself,
and it holds good through all the differ
ent grades of the animal kingdom,
Thus the humblest goose is better
guide for gosling than the most intel
Iigent monkey. Imagine cow trying
to teach duck to swim, and you have a
good idea of the anomaly of the political
state trying to ''teach the young idea
how to Shoot" Observe. [ do not say
that it is not the business and duty of
the state to foster and encourage educa-
ton by every means in Its power, but
it can never usurp the duty of parents
to control and direct the education
of their children without doing
violence to the law of nature, and
infringing upon the religious lib
erty of her citizens as guaranteed to
them by the constitution. might show
in detail the impracticability of adopt
ing the "SermOn on the Mount as a
moral text book for our schools under
the present state-controlled system of
education, but | will not treSpasS fur
| Their ony our valuable space. The plan
which l claim will best secure the in
terests of the state and protect the
rights of parents in the matter of educa-
ton, and at the same time insure the
highest possible degree of education for
the masses, was pointed out in the
| GLOBE of June 80. l believe it is the
only practical solution of the vexed
| question of educational reform and
worthy the earnest consideration OF
| every AMERICAN CITIZEN.
Minneapolis. Aug.3.