The Sisseton weekly standard. (Sisseton, Roberts County, S.D.) 1892-1929, 1906-04-20
MORALS I'M THE SCHOOLS.


Committee of Fifteen on Ethical Edu.
cation Recommends Concerted Ac.
ton.
The committee of fifteen appointed
by the state superintendent of public
instruction, in accordance with res.
olution adopted by the South Dakota
State Educational association to con.
slider the matter of ethical instruction
in the public schools, held meeting at
the Cataract hotel at Sioux Falls. A
majority of the members of the com.
mittee We're present.
The committee was unanimously of
the opinion that there should be con
certed and earnest movement through
out South Dakota for the securing of
better ethical condition in public ed,
ucation. The members We're con.
WINGED that the ends contemplated in
article 6, paragraph 1858 of the school
law. We're not fully attained. The said
paragraph reads as follows:
There shall be moral instruction in
the public school, intended to impress
upon the mind of pupils the impor,
lance of truthfulness, temperance,
purity, public spirit, patriotism. re-
spect for honest labor, obedience to
parents and due Difference for old age,
and this shall be given by every
teacher in the public service of the
state"
The committee believes that a for
ward movement looking toward secur-
ing these very desirable ends and the
the law should be instituted. Among the
changes considered practicable by the
committee are the following:
Active work on the part of the state
department Of public instruction. The
committee will request the state super
intendent before gatherings of teach
ers, county superintendent, school
officers and others to call attention to
the provisions of the law and the great
need of providing proper means for
vitalizing this element in our public
instruction.
The further discussion of the subject
by the State Educational association
and other teachers organizations
The committee will further attempt
to secure lectures on this subject be-
fore each county normal institute and
in each of the normal schools The
purpose of these lectures will be to
emphasize the Importance of such in
struction and to suggest ways and
means by which the teachers Can carry
out the intent OF the law.
The committee intends to bring out
as far as possible the ethical instruc-
tion upon points about which there can
be no controversy, and to confine the
work of instruction to those principles
upon which American citizenship is
unanimous Its members believe it is
imperative that the rising generation
should feel that without absolute truth.
honesty. faithfulness in public and
private life. purity, temperance, per-
sonal chastity, habits of fidelity in
public and in private trusts. there can
be no permanency of the republic
The question of how to attain these
ends engaged the major part of the
time of the committee
A number of subcommittee were
appointed as follows:
A committee to make thorough in
vestigation of what had been done in
other states and in other sections, and
to present carefully prepared synop-
sis Of this work for the use Of the gem
eral committee: also to prepare a list
showing what books. papers and other
literature are available for the purpose
mentioned
A committee to visit teachers gath
erings and other public organizations
for the purpose of correcting misap-
prehensions and MISUNDERSTANDING
and of getting the real program of
the general committee before the pub
lie.
A committee on ways and means.
1t will be the work of this subcom-
mittee to suggest practicable methods
of instruction. Many grave questions
confront this committee, such as the
feasibility of the Introduction of a
book of selections from the Bible as a
part of the instruction.; what text
books are available and what supple
mentary reading can be introduced
into the school libraries; how to adopt
the instruction Of the various grades
of students, and how to raise proper
sense of the relative Importance of
such moral instruction in the minds of
teachers, school officers, pupils and
parents.
TIE committee was unanimously of
the opinion that it was not feasible to