Waterbury evening Democrat., 1889-01-02
THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS,

with the public sympathy of America than the control and direction of the common schools That all sectarianism and sectionaiism should be carefully ex- cluded has come to be accepted as the 1 common ground that Is receiving the sanction of those who look with most intelligent insight into the matter. What ever may be the prejudices or what
 ever the educational theories that find fault with the system, there is deep down in the heart of the average American citizen a profound love for the common schools that is not patient of aggressive sectarian interference with them. This has been attested by the experience of those communities where any attempt at such interference has been made.
 And yet it cannot be said that the present moral forces ir the common sch ools are satisfying to those who look down the expanding vista of time and build ideals of what the future American citizen should be- With the broader views that are taking hold of the popular mind and the widening spheres of human activity that are expressing the budding ambition of our youth, the lack of some common ground of moral teaching is becoming daily more manifest. Atten- ton has hitherto been given chiefly to the intellectual forces that enter into the development of the youthful mind, but the moral uplift has now begun to awaken the care of the thoughtful.
 There is a growing conviction among them that unless the schools are made centers of moral power education will
 be incomplete and ineffective in the for
 nation of character. There is a ce1n-
 mon morality that governs life and has the large basis of the unwritten law, and
 for this we are feeling to-day in our methods of education. It is not enough that the youthful mind be trained in the clements of intellectual aud industrial development, it is not sufficient that it be drilled in the mental exercises of the | school room, but there should be, if the highest ends of education are to be attained, certain amount of moral instruction impressed upon it.. l The public school is the place where our 2 boys and girls fit themselves for the l battles of life and the struggles of com l mercial and political competition, and it l seems reasonable that the principles of q moral conduct which spring out of the D rightly instructed conscience should
 have a certain amount of attention
 given to them in our school training.
 They are legitimate and necessary part
 perly equipped for the battles of life if . they are not imbued with the principles
 and safeguards of moral conduct. And there is a growing idea, to which the
 differences and oppositions of creed can
 take no exception, that the moral sane tions of life which underlie catechisn1 ~ and bible and creed and dogma should 7 have recognized place in the curricu
 lum of the common school, and thai
 the teacher, of whatever religious per
 suasion, should put moral character into ;, the work of instruction.
 We can hardly expect that the religion.
 enthusiast, who looks at the public n | SCHOOLS as the place where reuglOuS De
 liefs should be sown either directly or by = insinuation, will be satisfied with com
 mon basis of moral instruction, but tn, I conscientious parent and the thoughtful
 citizen who is a friend to our com ' mon school system will feel that it Ii
 necessary if the system itself is to b,
 preserved. If our national polity is tt
 rest on a certain foundation we mus
 have moral character in our future cit
 izens and this can best be built by honest , untechnical instruction of this sort il a our public schools. And it is basis ol ,t which all can unite, leaving the dis N tinctive formation of sectarian alliance ,1 as the special province of the home, tn
 church and the Sunday schools.