The Haslingden Gazette. — 1904-02-06 (Haslingden, Lancashire, England)

SECULAR SCHOOLS IN AMERICA.  An eminent American, 6pmking of the secular syatem in vogue in the public .chools of America, recently said:—  The system of public education in this country is imperfect and vicious, and undermines the religion of our youth. We want our children to receive an education that will not only make them learned but pious men mid women. the religious and secular education of our children cannot be divorced from vacli oher without inflating a fatal wound upon the soul. The usual consequence of such a separation is to paralyse the moral faculty and to foment a spirit of indifference. The intellcatual and moral growth of our ohildren should go hand in hand, othenvie their education is shallow and fragmentary, and . . .  often proves a curse instead of a blessing. Uwuot expressed himself forcibly and dearly on this point. "In order," said he, "to make popular education truly good and socially useful. it must be fundamentally religious. It is nece.ary that national education should be given and re.eived in the midst of a religious atmosphere, and that religious impressions and religious observances should penetrate into all its parts. Religion is not a study or an exercise, to be restricted to a certain place or a certain hour; it is a faith and • law which ought to be felt everywhere, and which, after this manner alone, can exercise all its beneficial influences upon our mind and upon our life." The remedy for these defects would be supplied if the denominational svutern which now obtans in Canada were applied in our public schools. SECULAR EDUCATION IN OUR COLON'S&  Commenting on the above, the "School Guardian" contains the following : The disastrous results of secular instruction and the neglect of religious education in the Colonies were exposed by the recently-retired Bishop of Manchester tDr. Moorhouse) ins striking speech at the Folkestone Church Congress. Ile dealt with its effects in the Australian colony of Victoria, and showed not only the great increase of crime that had followed, but also the remarkable diminution in at at Sunday schools consequent on the adoption of the secular system during the week. With the exception of a small slumber of Denominational schools, "which with noble fidelity the Roman Catholics have maintained," all schools are nt the hands of the Government and are "drily secular." The system had at the time of the congre-ti been twenty years at work, and so regular was the attendance that only one child in every 200 of school age escaped school. All the children therefore were being "educated." It was said there as elsewhere that when the children were brought under the influence of education crime would quickly diminish. The Bishop produced in evidence the year.book for the colony of Victoria for 1890 91. The number of male criminals summarily convicted or held to bail in 1880 wae 12,469; in 1890 they were 20.189 —i.e., three where ten years previously there were twu Of more serious criminals, those guilty of murder and manslaughter, in 1890 there were 36; in 1890, Mi. Of robbery with violence in 1880 the convictions numbered 245; isi 1890, 465, or nearly two to one. And the most serious crimes were committed by the best educated criminals. Nor were the schools without moral teaching. Heel:wood's "Moral Flotation Book" was introduced. After a fair trial of its merits, the Government inspectors ilaymen) reporud that this teaching of moral truths was "both useless because uninteresting. and injurioes because it substituted a utilitarian morality for a healthy appeal to comcience. Aml as for the value of Sunday schools for instruction and training in religion, the result of the abolition of religious teaching from the day schodls was that both parents and children came to the conclusion that religious education might be neglected without bas. Instead of the Sunday schools making up for the defects of the day echoole, the attendance at Sunday schools declined from 71 to 39 per cent. In the same way no heed was paid to the attempts of religious bodies to secure the children for a religioui lesson before or after school on the week-day. "There were lessons before the school began, /essons after it finished, and lessons on the Saturday half-holiday, but they invariably failed, and no wonder." The colony bad however found out its mistake, and had already begun to retrace its steps frons secular schools.