Show RELIGION AND MORALITY IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS oxe ONE of the chief objections tc t the public school sy system stem of this cou country atry te Is the exclusion of religious instruction the fear ot of the lord is the beginning of wisdom ay and education that is not founded in godliness god linew is built upon an inadequate foundation we believe this defect is ia the principal cause of the opposition to the pub lie schools that comes from some portions of the clergy that early impressions are the most permanent to is universally conceded that faith in a supreme being and accountability to him for all the sets acts of life should be taught as soon as the infant mind is capable of sensing in any degier their importance will bea be a generally admitted by all who are truly religious if such sub ejects Jec teare are kept out of the schools the pupils will be likely to grow up with part of their being undeveloped the spiritual is as essential a portion of the person as the physical or the antell intellectual and needs cultivation in an equal degree education to is therefore incomplete where re ligion does not enter into and form an important part of it those who oppose religion in the school will say that parents who believe in religion can teach their children at home and the sunday schools of the churches will answer ever every other necessary purpose to this we may reply rep lythe the argument in favor of teaching children anything in school instead of or in addition to instruction at home applies just as much to religion as to arithmetic and the relegation of religion to the sunday school would give secular training at least five days in every week as against one day for religious training thus making the former five times as important as the latter of course where the schools are open to children whose parents hold opposite views as to creed denominational tenets must be excluded that needs no extended argument the jew does not want his children taught the divinity of jesus christ the catholic does not want protestantism instilled into the minds of his children nor does the protestant want papal ideas inculcated in the schools therefore all forms and creeds and observances peculiar to any church or sect must of necessity be banished from the public schoolrooms the public system it is ia an existing fact taxes are levied and schools are supported by taxation in utah as in many other parts of the union education is made compulsory by law so it to la useless perhaps to say much in reference to the system itself unless it be to point out how some modifications might be made without doing violence to any ones feelings we think the existence of a supreme being as the creator and ruler buier of the universe and the necessity of reverence for and obedience to him hiah might be taught without entering into the questions of his nature or of anything doctrinal or denominational the number of persons who really believe there is no such creative and over 41 ruling power to is so insignificant as an to cut scarcely the shadow of a figure in the great sum of humanity therefore it need not enter into these considerations when we view them in their vat importance morality the difference between right and wrong between honesty and its opposite between truth and falsehood courage and cowardice high mindedness and brutality and the cultivation of those qualities which aich make up refined and civil hiir MR society and cause boys and girls to grow up honorable self con trolled strolled and moral men and women might and ought to be taught in the public schools schon N and need deed not involve the introduction of any tenets or the peculiar views of any religious lous denomination there is no true religion which does not embrace morality and so far as it goes true morality is part of religion A religion that does not inculcate moral action to is not deserving of the name and all moral precepts are really religious in their spirit and tendencies but morality can be taught and illustrated to the juvenile mind without connecting it with anything sectarian or ceremonial or chedal it may be said if you teach morality you win will have to teach religion because morality is founded 4 in the divine law and is defined as conformity to divine will it is true that right as applied to morals is defined as conformity to the cons of man MAD and the will of god but as we have shown belief in deity can be taught without entering into the question of his characteristics as jangled over by sectaries sect aries and veneration of the supreme being may be without touching on any particular form of worship and thus morality with that much of universal religion can form a proper subject for public school tuition because it i does not necessarily include anything that would be objection objectionable ale to the devotees of any particular creed or ecclesiastical system one thing it is certain can be done that is every influence contrary to religion and antagonistic to a special form of it may be and ought to be vigorously excluded from the public schools if religion or religious morality must not be introduced trod no teacher should be permitted to foster irrell gion or infidelity or immorality or proclaim or insinuate anything against a given form of faith if catholicism may not be taught anti popery must not be indulged in if may not be taught taugh tit it must not be declaimed against if mormonism may not be explained anti antia mormonism must not be peri emitted if religion is forbidden in the schools must also be forbidden and no teacher ought to retain his or her position who per mite any bias or antipathy concerning a church or a creed to influence the teachings imparted in the school it in ig bad enough to have god and morality excluded from public juvenile instruction infidelity and hostility to the religious views of parents must not be tolerated in the tee schoolroom school room and no person is fit to act as a public teacher to be paid out of the public funds who indulges in attacks upon religion or ruy any form of it weare we are numbered among those who believe it would be better for the children of the latter day saints to be educated in their faith from their earliest childhood but we would not have the children of members of other churches compelled to receive tuition in the tenets of our faith therefore if circumstances were such that each denomination could provide scholastic training for its own juveniles we bellove belleve it would be the better plan for all but under the system now in force this would not be practicable therefore the small children should attend the district schools and be drafted when prepared into the higher or church schools and religious instruction st should be provided for them while in the district schools by other means so that they may not grow up tu in ignorance of the basic bade principles of spiritual education under the common school system however we maintain that faith in deity and in understanding of moral principles apart from all sectarian notions and denominational forms may and aad ought to form a part of the every day tuition of the children in the public schools for while no church would suffer from it society would be benefited in the mural and spiritual development that would be the natural conse conme queues quence |