Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-04-04
WiSd m of Compulsory
Education Questioned
by Bishop Gambler

otner Things or equal Importance WllcA
they are sacrificing to achieve their OBJ
ject
This is especially true in our coun-
try just now in the matter of educa-
ton. We emphasize the Importance CT
education; and this we ought to do. It's
Importance can hardly be overstated.
But there are other things equally ini-
portant, if not more SO.
Education is a means to an end; and
if we sacrifice the higher interests Of
liberty and parental authority and re-
ligion for education, we are paying for
it price far too dear And it seems
to me that we are in danger of sacri-
ficing some of these things in the popu-
lar demand for compulsory education.
Are we not in danger in this matter of
adopting the most pernicious form ~
paternalism?
The public school, maintained by tax
alton, has at its center an element of
socialism in that it takes the property
of one man for the benefit of the chill
dren of other men. We may go thus far
in the direction of socialism, perhaps,
without danger; but when the state as
serts it's right to take possession of the
children Of the country, and cancel par
entail authority by compulsory educa-
tion it is going too far. The family is
OlutI lAidll tire SloICs anu llO VI
education can offset the injury done a
child when the state coerces the par
ent in matter of this kind. No learn
ing acquired from books can compen-
safe for the injury done a child when
the state sets the parent aside and as
sumes towards the child a parental re-
lation of a superior sort.
Moreover, there is an invasion here
of the liberty of the parent which is
Ia, On afford
to exchange democracy for bureaucracy;
and yet all our educational policy by
the state is drifting in that direction.
This may make strong state, but II
will make also an enslaved citizenry.
Tine system has been carried to it's logi-
cal consequences in Germany with
what results the world knows too we'll.
Militarism in Germany rests on sys-
tenn of education in which the state
takes control of all the youth of the
country. This is clearly set forth by
Nietzsche On page sc of his work en-
titled the Future of Our Educational
Institutions" he says:
THE state assumes the attitude of n
mystagogue of culture, and, whilst 1t
promotes it's own ends, it obliges every
one of it's servants not to appear in It's
presence without the torch of universal
state education in his hands, by the flick
the state as the highest goal. as the
reward of all his strings after educa-
ton
Such doctrines as concerning education
naturally supply the basis of the tyran-
nical and immoral militarism.
The state now assumes the right to
select the teachers, and an educational
bureau does this work for the parents
of the country. This same bureau, or
hux
ing chosen the teachers and selected the
text books, it is proposed to force the
children of the country to come into the
schools and take under stress of COM
pulsion whatever is contained i'm these
books or thought by these teachers. Il.
would be possible under such a system
to force children to learn things which
their rents abhorred.
Indeed. just the other day | was read
ing in the Winchester Democrat of
Winchester. Ky, a call for a mass meet
ing of the patrons of the Winchester
schools to protest against the use in the
public schools of certain books which IL
was said. contained teachings in direct
contradiction of the Bible. Commenting
upon this incident a leading paper in
Kentucky said:
"Our public schools in all the states
as far as Ive know are gradually drifting
away from real Christianity and the
sooorer we wake up to this fact the bet
ter for all of us who are interested in
the unauthorized Gospel of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
1--WE endorse the spirit of the citizens
of Winchester in calling the meeting TO
protest against this infidelity. Let ali
places do likewise when such a heresy
cones to the surface. If God be God les
us serve Him and honor His Word"
| do not pretend to pass upon the con-
tents of the hooks against which protest
was made at Winchester. Ky; for 1 have
not seen them. But this case shows
how under system of compulsory ed
ucation parents might be forced to have
their children study books that were in
direct contradiction to the Holy Scrip
lures
More than once books of history have
been adopted which offended the sem
s!bilities of our people by stigmatizing
the southern Confederacy and it's lead
els. In like manner books teaching
other political doctrines of an offensive
sort might be adopted and forced upon
our children under a compulsory system
or education. In nearly all the schools
there is a text book on civil government,
and many of these text books set forth
the dangerous doctrines of centraliza-
ton, which we of the south at least,
ought not to accept, and which I doubt
not are unacceptable to the most
thoughtful people of all sections of our
country.
Again, just now there is a PROPOSE
ton to put into the public schools a
system of compulsory military training,
Notwithstanding many of the people ut
terly oppose, as they should oppose, any
such injection of militarism into our
common schools. But board of edu-
cation might adopt a system, and under
a plan of compulsory education force 1t
upon parents whose sentiments were
outraged by such thing. II will be
nothing less than deplorable to develop
military sentiment in the public
schools of the country; but already we
are travelling along the same way which
Germany passed in reaching the mill
tarism which prevails in that country
today. This path in Europe has led to
the most dreadful war in the history of
mankind: continent is i'm confagra-
lion. Let us beware that we walk not
ir the same direction, and to the same
horrible result
We need education and we must have
education; but we cannot pay this sort
OF a price for ii. Valuable as il is. there
are some things so sacred that we can
not exchange them for education even.
The authority of the parents, the filial
reverence of the child. the sanctity of
4bo 80 ha o9t