Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1889-04-27
EDUCATION AND THE STATE,
Extract from Gronlund's go Oper-
atiye Commonwealth"


"God has instituted three coordinate
authorities; the Family, the Church and
the State. The Family is Umperi,tm in
imperiO--a dominion within the domin,
ion -- the parent is exclusive master
within that dominion"
Well, we can pretty safely assert to
the contrary that the Coming Common.
wealth will not acknowledge the Church
as coordinate "authOrity."
There was time when the two were
coordinate authorities. At that time it
was still doubtful which Of them was
destined to be the embodiment Of the
social organism. Out of that struggle
the State has already virtually issued as
the victor The "Church' is in all civ
ilized countries already virtually moth
ing but voluntary association. "GOd'
thus has already decided against the
pretentons of the Church, and this
is the most important step, perhaps,
in the movement of the State towards
Socialism.
And we can also be assured that the
Church will not be made the organ Of
the State for education purposes.
There IL one sufficient reason: the
Chuych is not competent.
circumstances for centuries gave edu
cation into the hands of the Church,
and she then, perhaps, performed that
function as we'll rs could be done. Let
US grant that much. But we are not
living III the Middle Ages. So far from
being in our age al institution OF en-
lightenment, the Church is now looked
h,,, ;nf
institution to darken mems minds. We
simply state facts. The men of science
assume the falsty Of all theological dog
mas The Church is incompetent, be-
cause she knows nothing worth know
ing. We are again simply stating facts.
The Church has still some influence,
partly on account of our hypocrisy,
and hypocrisy ls prevailing as it is, just
because this Is IA transition age, but the
Coming Democracy will want to hn0'r
and will wage an unrelenting war
against all shams.
We, furthermore. maintain that
neither will the Family be acknowledged
a coordinate authority.
This, however is Il much more impor-
tant assertion than the former, and is
hot Hhllt 40 tNlltilis bbOuHli vi lflltt-
ton 1t will be found just AZ true. But
we cannot fail in passing to remark that
it is amusing to see the sOliCltude the
Church has for the authority of the Fam
lily now, when her own importance is
on the wane. When she had supreme
power she certainly did not consider the
Family co, ordinate with herself.
The first evidence we shall adduCe to
show that the Coming Commonwealth
will assert supremacy AZ against the
Family is that which we everywhere
throughout this book place at the head
the logic of events. lust IN the same
proportion the state has 0NIrundized
HSef, the tnmHy has dniHdicd in imp0r-
idnce, The State commenced to rcpu-
diate the "dOminiOn' of the Family the
moment it forbade parents to destroy
their children. 1t absolutely rejected
that "dOmlnion' the moment it, the
State, fixed the age of majority, when
the child is entirely emancipated from
parental control.
Why! the system where authority is
vested in the Family, as distinguished
from the State, is that patrarchal, bar
barrie system from which we are more
and more retreating. Proudhon IL de
cidedly right when he says: ut is on
the model of the Family that all feudal
and antique societies have organized
themselves, and II IS precisely against
this OM pdtridrchdl constitution that
modeIW democracy rcrOitS and protests.
1t is yet sometimes said that blood is
thicker than water" but that is not
.,rt l,, f,,.,k l,,,k
the individual has become almost indie
pendent of the Family, is merely the
preparatory step to the supremacy of
the State.
$50 Children do not belong to their
parents, they belong to society. The
observation Of Franklin, that, if we 90
back but few generations, we necessa-
rily come to common ancestors, ex-
presses the truth that we are more the
children of society than of our several
families. Again, the education of chill
dren is of far more Importance to the
State than to parents, since the effect of
it will he felt by society, and princi-
pally after these parepts are dead and
gone. 1t is because through it society
aceompliShes the end of its being. that
all education is a public trust.
just as little as parents will the many
denominational and private schools and
colleges which we now have do. Even
granted that the education in, say, the
Quaker college of Swathmore is fully up
to the standard of any other public col
lege, the New Order cannot get along
with such one-sided, awry, cramped
men and women as necessarily must
issue from such one-sided school.
Lastly, the same objection applies to
the Family as to the Churchill is m
competent 10 teach. That is the main
objection against Herbert Spencer's
Justly popular book on education"
lie assumes throughout his treatise
(which might better have been called
Home training that parents are COM