The Catholic times. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1951-current, 1955-02-11

ANY suggestion that all school children in the
United States be compelled to attend public, tax
supported schools ought TO fail What's more, il
ought 10 be thoroughly repudiated before it gains
any headway
Such proposal ignores the beginnings Of our
country, completely misjudges the needs of the
country and Of education propagates wrong idea
Of what education is and is illegal.
These points are made in calm appraisal by
competent educators who were asked by NC.WC.
News Service TO comment on the recently published
booklet Public Education and the Future of Amer
ics The booklet in the opinion of many, marks
the start Of campaign to put all children IN pub
lie schools It's sponsorship gives it weight 1t was
issued by the Educational Policies Commission,
which Is sponsored Jointly by the National Edu-
cation Association and the American Association
Of School Administrators
William H Conley said the booklet sets forth
clearly the party line Of small but aggressive,
group OF public school expsnsionsts' It is change
of tactic though he added, because while earlier
statements along this line called private schools
"dvisive the present one stresses the unlfying IN
fluence Of the common school,
"It is a matter Of regret to those of us who have
served in both private and public schools, de-
rlared DR. Conley who is educational assistant to
the president Of Marquette University He saw three
fallscies in the proposal:
First "the failure to consider the primary right
Of the family 10 educate its children "a rlght the
IS .upreme Court recognized in the Oregon School
Casel
Second ii confuses propaganda or something
closely akin TO it. with education" IF education is
concerned with the total development of the in
divdual to the maximum Of his capacIty-intei-
lectual, moral and physical-with the commuDlea-
ton of knowledge. and with the discovery ol truth
how can one conclude that particular kind of edu-
cation must be designed 10 support particular
way Of life?r Or Coney asked is this designing
Of education not dangerously close to Statism2"
Third it confuses unity and uniformity" 1T
Is contrary to the philosophy underlying our iunda
mental law to require Americans TO attend the
same church. to read the same newspapers and
books 10 attend the same common schools" DR.
Conley pointed out.
Dr. Cenley said that those "who work cooper
atiyey to educate Americas children" need to be
assured "bv the particular educational fraternity re
sponsble for this booklet that future efforts will
moi be directed toward regimenting education, but
to the improvement Of education"
Father William Granger Ryan, president Of Seton
Hill College Greensbure, Pa, said the authors OF
the booklet seem deliberately and uniustly to ex-
clude" from any part in the achievements of Amer
lean education the privately controlled public
schools Of the nation
Father RYAN rejected the implication Of the book
let's authors that private schools are guilty of un-
due separatism factionalsm This is simply
not true" he declared The vast majority Of paro-
ehial schools for instance, are quite as much COM
mon schools or public schools as the taX-support-
ed schools IF they are divisiye at all it is be-
cause there are religious divisions in America, based
on profound and sincere religious convictions
Saying the booklet contains "clear but guarded"
expression of regret over the Supreme Courts de
cison in 1925 in the Oregon School Case, Father
Ryan declared "As long as the National Educa-
tion Association, through its commissions and pub
lcations espouses a philosophy which regards pub
lie education as the only truly American education,
and which dismisses all private education as sec
tartan and unduly separatis il will meet with re-
sisance from those who regard freedom OF educa-
tion as an essential American Freedom"
What we need now" Father Ryan added, more
than we have ever needed IT, is an educational pol
icy continuously studied and formulated by repre-
sentatives Of all types Of education, meeting as
equals and colleagues. not rivals and antagonists
Msgr Henry C. Bezou, superintendent of schools
Of the Archdiocese OF New Orleans, saw both an
omission and a fallacy in the booklet He said it
ignored the contribution Of non-public schools to
contemporary America and it gave the idea that
schools-public or non.pubc-can stand for the
whole educational process
Asserting that the fallacy is "less pardonable"
than the omission because IL is premise that has
been too often refuted" Monsipnor Bezou pointed
out hat "in every century and in every country
there are many other forces at work besides schools,