Evening star., 1952-04-27
By Religious News Service

| I1OtSSGdIlUS JOl1lCu 1SOIIldIl NdbII
olics this week in defending tn
fright of private, including pa
rochial schools to exist along
tside the public schools.
/ The National Association o
lEvangelicalS, at its annual con
vention in Chicago, denouncet
what it called tendency toward
|statism which advocates IAN ex
elusive policy of compulsor.
education for all American you'll
to the exclusion of non-publi
or independent schools"
The association, spokesman TO
the Nations conservative Prot
estant churches and leaders, calle'
upon it's constituency to protes
this tendency, which it salt
threatens the "God-given pa
rental right to educate our chill
dren in accord with individual
religious convictions.
Defends Democratic Right.
DR.. Paul Austin Wolfe, moder.
ator of the Presbytery of New
York, also attacked critics of pri.
vate education. Addressing mem.
bers of the Presbytery, he upheld
the democratic right" of pa
rents to educate their children
in church or private schools OF
their own choice.
He defended church and pri-
vate schools against charges that
they are undemocratic, declaring
that true democracy must have
more than one school system, as
it must have more than one po-
litical party.
"The same people who pro-
claim today that democracy must
have one school system" he said,
will proclaim tomorrow that de-
must have one political
party, one church, one newspa-
per. When they say democracy,
they mean State regimentation. -
Dean James A. Pike, of the
Cathedral of st. John the Divine,
in New York. said that those who
oppose private and church schools
stand for lone of the greatest
threats to democracy imaginable. "
The Episcopal clergyman said
that such individuals seek to
divorce religion from education
by imposing a "monolithic educa-
tional philosophy" on the youth
of the country.
Major Groups May Act.
It is likely that the major
Protestant denominational bodies,
which are scheduled to hold their
annual conventions in the next
few months, also will take up this
issue.
The attacks on private schools,
made recently by speakers at the
regional convention of the Ameri-
can Association of School Admin
istrators in Boston,. have greatly
disturbed Catholic leaders.
Archbishop Richard j. Cushing
of Boston denounced these attacks
in two separate public addresses
last week. a sign of the agitation
they have created in Catholic
circles. The National Catholic
Educational Association, at its
annual meeting in Kansas City
last week, issued a strong reply
TO critics Of the parochial schools.
Catholics were most disturbed
over a charge made at the Boston
convention by DR.. James B. Con-
ant. president of Harvard Univer-
sity. who contended that the
growth of private schools was de-
Veloping a dual system of educa-
tional harmful to democracy.
Dividing Line of Freedom.
Archbishop Cushing replied that
D1lVdCC SCIlOOlS die 1I1S OlVlUlIlS
line between freedom and dicta-
between democracy and
totalitarianism."
Monopolies in any field Of hu-
man endeavor, the Archbishop
said, are threat to freedom. and
education is no exception. The
of modern government,
ne added, may usually be judged
from its attitude toward private
schools. Under totalitarian re-
yimes they are suppressed or re-
while in free nations they
prosper. Public, parochial and
private schools are partners. not
competitors in American educa-
ton, Archbishop Gushing said.
The National Catholic Educa-
tional Association adopted a
which declared that
Catholic schools are not divisive
and do not undermine the unity of