i 1 ii I 1 'i ^CURRICULUM ^, mjawcHw^ Creed and Curriculum A Discussion of the Question, Can the Essentials of Religious Faith and Prac- tice Be Taught in the Public Schools of the United States? By WILLIAM CHARLES O'DONNELL, Jr. Editor Educational Foundations New York: EATON & MAINS Cincinnati: JENNINGS & GRAHAM LC \\\ Copyright, 1914, by W. C. O'DONNELL, Jr APfi 13 IQH ,ffW' .^BBu . amvM - ICI.A371346 CONTENTS PAGE I. The Problem Stated 11 II. Some Expressions op Opinion 21 III. Some Further Opinions 30 IV. In Other Lands 43 V. The Testimony of Primitive Man 55 VI. Primitive Man and Education 66 VII. An American Criticism and an Australian Experiment 71 VIII. Pre-Christian Nations 83 IX. The Great Teacher 93 X. Before the Reformation 101 XI. Who Leads the Way? 113 8 IN ANTICIPATION In the development of his theme the author has made a somewhat liberal use of quotation. The advantage in this practice is to give em- phasis to the importance of the subject and to indicate a trend of opinion which in itself is highly significant. What is needed at the pres- ent time is fearless yet kindly discussion, un- burdened by dogmatism and unsullied by prejudice. Should this little book intensify interest in such a discussion its purpose will have been fulfilled. The following excerpt is from Ideals and Democracy, An Essay in Modernism, by Arthur Henry Chamberlain, just published by Rand, McNally & Company, a stimulating book dealing with fundamental principles : "The school, you say, for intellection and the home and the church for morality. To place upon the church and the home the duty of inculcating the principles of moral living, and to intrust the duty of such proper instruc- tion to ministers and fathers and mothers is not enough. Time was when moral teaching 5 6 CEEED AND CUERICULUM took place largely in the home. The home life was a community life. The home was the cen- ter of the family. There were fewer congested cities than now. Social and industrial condi- tions were vastly more simple than they are to- day. Children are now reared in apartment houses and tenements, and in stifling cellars and garrets. The manifold duties of fathers and mothers separate them constantly from their children, and the latter simply are al- lowed to ^grow' as was Topsy. The increased desire for wealth and the get-rich-quick spirit of the day render parents careless of their du- ties in the realm of moral instruction. The very atmosphere of this century of faster liv- ing makes the problem ever increasingly com- plicated.'' Mr. R. Fulton Cutting, president of the New [York Association for Improving the Condition of the Poor, in a recent address spoke as follows : "Organized cooperation between the church and public school teachers will materially in- crease the influence and importance of each in the community in forming a moral sense in the plastic minds of the community's youth. Everywhere, through school committees, the IN ANTICIPATION 7 pastor and his people should get in close touch with teachers, principals, and district superin- tendents of the public schools, to study mod- ern methods of education, sanitation in the schools, the adaptation of the curriculum to meet the needs of the community, and work for the introduction of manual training, ele- mentary agriculture, and domestic science. At present, machine methods of education, with no regard for individual capacities or de- fects of children, are responsible for much of the crime in the country. "There are 19,000,000 children in the public school of this country, receiving no direct re- ligious education. For five hours a day they are in touch with their teachers and under the teacher's influence. Once a week, less than one per cent of these children go to Sunday schools, which attempt to make up for the lack of moral education in the public schools ; but too often the methods of pedagogy used in these Sunday schools are archaic and obsolete, the practical methods of teaching in the public schools being there unknown. The church ex- hausts itself in efforts to reclaim the youth whom it has neglected." Addressing the session of the Federated 8 CREED AND CURRICULUM Catholic Societies at Milwaukee August llth, Archbishop Ireland declared that "the evil to- day in America is the decay of religion, and, in necessary sequence, the decay of morals. In both instances the cause of the decay is the en- forced secularism of the state schools. Others than Catholics, heedful observers and intelli- gent thinkers, admit the evil, admit the cause and give the alarm.'' Speaking further of secular schools the Archbishop said: "Not against State schools as such do I raise objections, but as to the method in which they work — methods that, whatever the theory be, do in fact consecrate secularism as the religion of America and daily are thither driving America with the floodtide of Niagara. Somehow, I claim, secu- lar knowledge must be imparted to the child, so as not to imperil its faith in God and Christ. Prove to me, I say, that this contention does not fully fit into the Constitution of the United States; that in making it I have not in mind the welfare, the salvation of America — prove this before you call the contention un- American if not anti- American.'' This eloquent pronouncement is worthy the consideration and indorsement of Protestants IN ANTICIPATION 9 as well as of Catholics. With such breadth of view and such ardent patriotism as here ex- pressed, the Archbishop, we conclude, would not consider the parochial school, valuable as it may be to his own communion, the solution of the problem he presents. Only the spirit- ualizing of the secular school can meet the contingency, and for this purpose good Ameri- cans can afford to distinguish between what is essentially sectarian and what is fundamen- tally religious. According to a current newspaper report, a large number of the members of the upper classes in a public school within the boun- daries of Greater New York are refusing to join in songs that have any reference to the Deity. The questioning of the district super- intendent elicited this reply : "We have been taught a lot of things in science about the growth and origins of things which don't agree with the things in the Bible, and we take the science. The Bible says that God put the rainbow in the sky as a sign that there should be no more floods. We have been taught that the rainbow is caused by refrac- tion of the sun's rays in rain drops falling to the earth. Another thing, the Bible says the 10 CEEED AND CUEEICULUM sun was put in the heaTens to rule by day and the moon by night, but the moon often shines by day/' Making allowance for whatever of misrepre- sentation the report may contain, the reason given exhibits an utter lack of appreciation of the Bible as literature and no proper concep- tion of the real nature of religion. For this the young people are, of course, not respon- sible. What, then, should be expected of the schools which eventually must trim their methods to suit atheistic objections, or incul- cate a wholesome regard for the beauties and blessings of belief in the Deity? Is not this a turning question of the day? THE PROBLEM STATED Can the essentials of religious faith and prac- tice he taught in the puhlic schools of the United States, for the good of the country, without violating the spirit of the Constitu- tion and without justifying antagonism from religious sects? Perhaps this is not the best possible phras- ing of the question. It is designed, however, to be somewhat comprehensive and is aimed at the heart of a serious educational problem. On the following propositions there is little room for dissension : (a) Religion is an instinct of the human heart, a potent agency in the formation of character and in the creation of ideals, a dominant factor in society, and an outstanding fact in history. (h) The fundamental and universal ele- ments in religion can be clearly differ- entiated from sectarian doctrine and method. 11 12 CREED AND CUERICULUM (c) The best and most authoritative defi- nitions of education absolutely compel the directing of the child's spiritual nature. We do not "educate'' children unless we prepare their minds for the comprehension of religious truth. (d) The practice of leaving religious in- struction to home and church results in thousands of American boys and girls growing to maturity with no true con- ception of the value of religion and no adequate moral equipment. Home con- ditions vary and church allegiance is voluntary^ Other provision is impera- tive if our young people are to under- stand the reasonableness of reverence. (e) The individual, the home, the church, the school, and the nation would all be benefited by the actual employment of our general educational machinery in the interests of pure religion. Therefore it follows that (/) Educational leaders owe it to the coun- try to devise a system of religious in- struction in the public schools free from all suspicion of sectarian bias. And presumably THE PEOBLEM STATED 13 {g) A Superintendent of Eeligious Instruc- tion, working in harmony with, ac- credited representatives of Jewish, Koman Catholic, and Protestant or- ganizations in each State, could safe- guard the interests of all the people and preserve the constitutional principle of separation of church and state. In an era of transitional foment, the calm discussion of imposing problems is an obliga- tion to be denied only with dishonor. Such is our era, such is our problem, and such is our obligation. We must recognize at the out- set the difficulties and delicacies involved in all discussions having to do with religion, and the danger of embarrassing entanglements with other somewhat related questions. When these questions are confused, the issue is be- fogged and progress impeded. We are not now discussing (1) the teaching of morals, (2) devotional exercises, (3) Bible reading, or (4) sectarian intrusion. We can make no advancement without a clear under- standing on these points of differentiation. (1) We have no reason to doubt that the moral standards of the classroom are high. 14 CEEED AND CUEEICULUM They may be more wholesome and more far- reaching than is generally realized. Those who contend for direct and conscious moral instruction have much weight of argument on their side. Some argue very adroitly against such a program, however, on the ground that it is very apt to defeat its own purpose. "Morals," say they in substance, "must be inhaled, absorbed, unconsciously assimilated, silently incarnated, gently blended with per- sonality, gradually transfused into charac- ter," etc. As you will. The discussion is quite distinct and affects the present one only indirectly. Eeligious conceptions applied to conduct determine moral values, but morality is not religion in its entirety. (2) We are not pleading for devotional exercises, compulsory or voluntary. The cases of pupils having been seriously harmed by the few minutes given to such exercises in secular schools have not figured largely in our history, nor will the story of the benefits bestowed upon impressionable hearts through this agency ever be written. Objections have arisen, however, and in some sections have operated to abolish the practice. With these objections we have nothing to do at pres- THE PKOBLEM STATED 15 ent. It is at least admissible that some individuals may object to the devotions and yet understand that the absence of real reli- gious instruction in our public schools is the glaring pedagogical inconsistency of the age. (3) When recently the editor of Religious Education conducted an investigation into the subject, it was shown that in eleven States Bible reading was definitely provided for by legislative enactment. Twenty-seven States had no law on the subject, but gen- erally observed the custom. The Bible was by due legal process understood to be excluded from the schools in the States of California, Washington, Montana, Minnesota, Nevada, Idaho, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Illinois. In a number of States legislation was pending. The proposition to give religion a definite place in the school curriculum is quite aside from the reading of a few passages of Scrip- ture as part of opening or closing exercises. (4) As for sectarian intrusion, our public school system must ever be valiantly guarded against it. The fear of it constitutes the crux of our problem. Were there no danger along this line, there would be little occasion for this discussion. How shall we put religion in and 16 CEEED AND CURRICULUM shut sectarianism out? Do we propose to keep religion out forever, lest perchance sec- tarianism shall get in? Such a course is eva- sion, not solution. It is illogical, cowardly, perilous, and absolutely unwarranted. It is poor pedagogy, poor morals, and poor Ameri- canism. Let us remember that religion is from above and is indispensable. Sectarian- ism is from below and is incidental. On page 620 of the second volume of Dr. G. Stanley Hall's Educational Problems may be found the sentence: "Protestant of Protes- tants though I am, I feel the force of the contention of my Catholic brethren that the school shall not be godless." On the next page the author declares : "We should set about to find fundamentals in religion that can be taught all children for their moral good/' These fundamentals should not be difficult to find. Some of them surely are a part of the common knowledge. The proposal to provide for their effective presentation in the graded school seems as yet but a Barmecide feast. Aladdin's palace was judged perfect with the exception of that one window which the Sul- tan lacked treasure to finish. Proud as we have a right to be of this educational palace THE PKOBLEM STATED 17 of ours, we dare not predicate perfection of it, for were it even so in all other respects, there yet remains this Aladdin's window of religious instruction to finish. Andrew S. Draper, whose recent death removed a com- manding figure from the field of educational administration, was wont to speak and write with unction on this subject. In American Education we find this expression: "It is to be regretted that we cannot come to agree- ment upon some basis of popular education and religious culture which would be repug- nant to none and which would relieve the denominations and the churches from the effort and expense for instruction that the most forceful of them feel bound to make." It is well to refer frequently to the Ordi- nance of 1787 for the government of the North- west Territory, wherein we read: "Eeligion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of man- kind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." This language is not to be dismissed lightly as applicable only to "primitive conditions" — a plea that is very popular in these complex times — for no matter how heterogeneous our population, 18 CREED AND CURRICULUM and no matter how complex our civilization, it is true now, as it was true in 1787 and as it will be true in 1987 and in the long cen- turies of American history that are still to come^ that good government and human hap- piness will derive their supplies from these ancient reservoirs — religion, morality, and knowledge. Further, we shall continue to encourage "schools and the means of educa- tion" because they promulgate knowledge, advance morality, and are open channels for the living waters of pure and undefiled reli- gion. This question is not one of interest to peda- gogues and theorists alone. It is as intensely practical and pressing as any now agitat- ing the public mind. It affects society at the sources of its life, and generations to come will be swayed by influences created by the action or inaction of this generation at this point. We are all too familiar with out- breaks of crime not only in large cities but in smaller towns and in mountain fastnesses. The gangster is constantly coming into prominence and power. It is deplorable that in the humming centers of our industrial and commercial life there are groups of creatures THE PROBLEM STATED 19 in human form as ready to spill human blood as the African hunter is to bring down his inhuman prey. Yes, it is indeed to be de- plored, but there is another fact even more sinister. How many of us are keenly alive to the situation? We may arrest and punish and kill these red-handed criminals, but while we are engaged in these punitive occupations, scores, and hundreds, and thousands of youngsters are growing up with no loftier ambition than to be gang members and gang heroes. Anyone who cares to take the oppor- tunity of closely observing the conduct of the motley gToups of boys of a school age who overrun the dirty streets of the slums will witness shocking evidence of their thievish- ness, their craftiness, their vindictiveness and bestiality. These are not pleasant reflections. Some may consider them but the prating of a pessi- mist. Others are compelled to hear much of the obscene and brazenly blasphemous lan- guage of the streets, and are forced to face the question, "If this is the material upon which our schools are at work to fashion it for a useful maturity, what are the chances for success?'' Is there not some way of im- 20 CREED AND CURRICULUM planting within the hearts of these lads some flower of reverence whose fragrance may sweeten the coming years? If this is a con- summation to be wished, mnst there not be some more systematic and comprehensive effort than is possible under the present regime? This is but one phase of the broad problem, for, as indicated above, there are children not of the city streets who are yet unprotected against the peril of a religionless life. It is indubitably the province of our public educational enterprise to drive deep into all minds the thought that Daniel Web- ster declared to be the greatest he ever enter- tained, namely, his personal accountability to God. This would be one of the aims of reli- gious instruction in the secular school. Should this be the only good accomplished, it would be worth millions of dollars to the country. II SOME EXPEESSIONS OF OPINION In the preceding eliapter care has been taken to define the meaning and to delimit the scope of the problem with which we are trying to deal. An attempt was made also to differentiate between this problem and sev- eral others related to it and sometimes con- fused with it. We sought such a statement of the case as would permit of no misunder- standing on the part of the careful reader. Men are so prone to approach a discussion of this kind with minds polychromic with pre- conceptions that a great gain is made if we can be assured that there is a common under- standing as to terms used, as to facts compre- hended by the formal phrasing of the discus- sion, and as to the ultimate purpose of the argument. It is possibly too much to hope that all this was actually accomplished, but those who are satisfied with this preliminary statement will readily agree that the com- plete secularization of our public schools is an egregious blunder resulting in evils that 21 22 CKEED AND CUERICULUM must sooner or later require radical remedies. The evils are evident, the remedies are prob- lematical. The time is upon us when an ear- nest attempt should be made to unite on some plan of action, and to clearly outline a policy that may diminish the dangers into which we are drifting. A few illustrations of what persons of learning and influence are saying on the subject in general may suffice, however, for the purpose of the present paper. To quote: "Children should be taught to fear God and love their fellow men. They should be made familiar with the truths of the Bible. They should be instructed to re- member their Creator in the days of their youth, and to observe the commandments. But this is a branch of education which is not within the province of the State. It be- longs to parents, the home, the Sunday school, the mission, and the church.'' This sentiment was expressed by Judge Moore, of Detroit, in 1898, when dissenting from the decision in the case of one Pfeiffer versus the Board of Education, to the effect that fifteen minutes for Bible reading at the close of the day's session was not a violation of the State Con- stitution. It may be that the opinion of Judge SOME EXPRESSIONS OF OPINION 23 Moore as thus expressed is held by thousands of Americans who love truth and righteous- ness, and who believe in the integrity of the public school system no less firmly than they believe in the cause of religion. Does it not actually declare the American ideal and prac- tice? What fault can be found with it except by the confirmed atheist who, of course, will not consent that children should be taught to fear God? Many familiar facts of history could be adduced and correlated as an ada- mantine argument in support of the opinion that religion should be considered a branch of education which is not within the province of the State and consequently cannot be per- mitted in the curricula of institutions sup- ported by public revenues. Theoretically, our impulse would be to subscribe to this belief as correctly representing the true ideal of Western civilization, liberated, as we fondly boast, from the burdensome practices of darker ages and from the bitter thraldoms of the effete Orient. On second thought, how- ever, we discover that by acknowledging reli- gion as a "branch of education" and then excluding it from our public educational pro- gram we place either religion or education or 24 CKEED AND CURKICULUM both in an anomalous position. Perhaps the judge used the expression in an accommo- dated sense, and it is probable that he does not really regard religion as a branch of edu- cation in the same sense that obtains in the case of law, philosophy, science, art, and literature, or as applied to the vocational and recreational departments now so popular as features of our educational propaganda. And again, how will this opinion meet the test pragmatically? It is for many reasons desir- able that our young people shall approach adulthood with a keen sense of personal re- sponsibility, which is, after all, but the reverse side of the shield of reverence. With- out conscience and heart, as well as mind and hand, the individual is but poorly equipped for effective citizenship in this world, to say nothing of any possible world to come. So we say the home and the church, the parent and the priest must see to it that the children shall be provided with soundly practical reli- gious instruction. Then we leave the home and the church, the parent and the priest to do as they please or as they can. Homes may be religionless, parents godless, churches mechanical, and priests mercenary. The SOME EXPKESSIONS OF OPINION 25 actual condition that confronts us is the utter inadequacy of these agencies to insure a uni- versal religious education. So we run plumb into the dilemma, Shall we cling to our petty theory or shall we yield to the compulsion of facts? To quote again: "Education to be worthy of the name trains the faculties of the intel- lect to grasp and contemplate the truth; it trains and disposes the affections of the heart to desire and cling to the beautiful and good. It restrains and purifies the passions; it teaches the will to yield to reason and obey the dictates of conscience in doing right and avoiding wrong. The unequal development of man is not education. No process that does not take into account the present and the future, the temporal and the eternal, can claim to be philosophical, complete, or desir- able." Which is to say that the education now administered through our State systems of public instruction is not philosophical, is not complete, is not desirable. "The great question of our day is the ques- tion of education. Education forms men and nations, and that system of education is best 26 CKEED AND CURRICULUM which gives man the true ideal or conception of his relations to God, to society, and to the world around him." Did ever man have a true conception of his relations to society who did not have a true conception of his relations to God? Why should man be true to his fellow man if man and his fellow know not the God of truth? Without this knowl- edge, education is a misnomer and the educa- tional system that omits it is a monstrosity. "No wonder that religion has so little part in the lives of millions when it has so little share in their education. To exclude religion from the schools of a nation means to exclude religion from the life of a nation. We cannot gather grapes of thorns or figs of thistles. A religious people can never spring from unre- ligious schools.'^ From what source are we drawing these quotations? They are the words of Regis Canevin, Bishop of Pittsburgh, in an address delivered before the Catholic Educational Association, Pittsburgh, June 12, 1912, and reported in the Catholic Educational Review for September, 1912. The stanchest Protes- tant in the country might have uttered the same words with perfect consistency, however SOME EXPEESSIONS OF OPINION 27 much he may differ with the author as to cause and cure. The distinguished bishop was able to quote Mr. Balfour of England in part as follows: "I hold it to be an evil, aye, the greatest of all evils, to permit children to be brought up in schools in which no pro- vision was made for religious formation. And I solemnly express, to-day, my hope that Eng- land will never accept the responsibility of public instruction without religion." We are reminded further of the memorable words of Washington: "Whatever may be conceded to the influence of refined education on minds of peculiar structure, reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle." It would seem that there is a remarkable unanimity among churchmen, educators, and statesmen as to the necessity of religious in- struction from the standpoint of the well-being of the nation. That which is best for the citizenship of the country — that which promises to contribute largely to the per- petuity of our institutions and to the peace and prosperity of the land through the com- ing years, is ipso facto the concern of the 28 CREED AND CURRICULUM state — or nothing can be. That day is far gone when in ancient Israel every man did what was right in his own eyes and the record of its lawlessness indicates the inevitable trend of an ungoverned individualism. Social construction and reconstruction, making ever for better conditions and nobler achievement, must sink its foundation pillars deep into the Silurian rock of religious knowledge. This opinion is not the product of a vision dis- torted by bigotry and superstition. It is the positive implication of an honest patriotism that challenges dispute, and is consistent with the educational policy of the best thinkers of our age. It harmonizes in fact with the doc- trines and definitions of the great educators of the Christian era and in basic principle is identical with the teachings of the immortal emancipators of the ancient world. We may yet find opportunity to develop this observa- tion at greater length, for it offers an alluring field for easy research. Such a discussion lies far beyond the limits of the present chapter, however, and we close this chapter with an- other quotation which will give even stronger emphasis to the position here advocated. It may be found on page 229 of Davidson's Edu- SOME EXPRESSIONS OF OPINION 29 cation of the Greek People: "By substituting philosophy for religion; by cultivating un- duly the abstract reason which is the organ of the former and ignoring the supernatural sense which is the condition of the latter; by placing the supreme activity of man in intel- lectual vision, instead of in moral life guided by the vision of love and good will, it failed to put itself in living relation to the supreme principle of that moral freedom which is the ^chief end of man.' In consequence, Greece not only perished herself, but she left an example, by following which other nations have perished — ^yea, and other nations will yet perish unless, warned by her fate, they make all education culminate in the culture of the spiritual sense which reveals God, and so place religion on the throne which belongs to her as the guide and inspiration of life.'' Ill SOME FUKTHER OPINIONS The opinion slowly formed is the opinion firmly fixed. The question now under review involves an agitation that will become more and more acute as time rolls on and it is the duty of every American citizen to qualify for an intelligent participation in the discussion. It may yet be planked in some political plat- form and become recognized as of equal if not greater significance than some of the pro- posed improvements in the social economy now being hard ridden by aspirants for public office. Some problems are created for and hardly survive the exigencies of a campaign, but such issues as lie close to the heart of the republic and are most profoundly identified with its life are the great concern of a truly progressive people. It is well, therefore, that we spend sufficient time in dealing with the general aspects of our present topic before attempting those finer discriminations neces- sary to the final solution, if indeed such solu- tion can ever be found. 30 SOME FURTHER OPINIONS 31 Let us therefore continue for a time the process of examining the utterances and ana- lyzing the opinions of men who have given most thought to the subject. By such process we should find ourselves getting closer and closer to the actual difficulties which we or our children will be compelled to face at the time of the final conflict. In a previous chapter passing allusion was made to a sentence in Dr. G. Stanley HalPs Educational Problems. A book has just appeared claiming to be a -digest or epi- tome of Dr. HalPs views as found in his many volumes, so that we have a crystallization of his teachings under the title, The Genetic Philosophy of Education. Dr. Hall is fortu- nate in having this work done for him during his own lifetime and in being permitted to write his own introduction. Dr. G. E. Par- tridge is the author of the book; Sturgis & Walton Company, New York, publishers. As pertinent to this discussion, we offer the fol- lowing selections from the chapter on "Reli- gious Education" : "The general educational aspects of the religious life can briefly be summarized thus: The function of religion is to establish and 32 CREED AND CURRICULUM unify in the individual the highest racial ideals. The individual repeats the moral and spiritual growth of the race, and only in a completed adolescent stage does he arrive at that state of devotion to the ideals which, considered on its biological side, is a suppres- sion of self, in the service of the race, and on the religious side is a state of conversion or service to God. A truly religious life is, therefore, the expression of normal complete development. In it the individual comes to a safe maturity, having passed through stages of danger of arrested development, of perver- sion of interests, and of excessive self-interest. Religion must be regarded as the largest aspect of life, or its deepest meaning, and it must be called an inner growth, an expres- sion of fundamental instincts to be good, true, and normal. The religious teacher must be looked upon as an inspirer of development in a broad sense, so broad that his aims cannot be separated from the function of any and all teaching, for everything that fosters develop- ment of the child's fundamental instincts and emotions helps to lay the foundation of the religious life. Moreover, the course that ends in a normal religious life is one naturally SOME FURTHER OPINIONS 33 taken by all, if heredity be sound and environ- ment natural. The religious teacher does not work against nature but with it. Religion has done its work in the world because it has rightly met the crying needs of human nature. To discover those needs at any stage of civili- zation we must ask, What is the nature of childhood? What are its deeper interests and real capacities? How must the child be trained in order to bring every power of mind and body to the fullest development? "The teaching of religion in the secular school is a difficult problem, and very impor- tant, for religion is so essential a part of life, and so intimately connected with every other function, that to neglect it, or to ignore it in teaching, is to leave out the most vital of all the elements of culture. It is certain now that the control of the religious organization over the public school has gone forever , and that the school must undertake to teach reli- gion. At present it can he said that the secu- larization of the school has cast out religion, and that in doing this it has inevitably weak- ened morality J and hampered the teaching of morals, which is inseparable from religion. 34 CEEED AND CUKKICULUM The result is that many children must now grow up in ignorance of the Bible, which is the greatest culture book ever written. The wide-spread view that morality can be taught without religion is wrong. The teaching of prudential morals, all secular ethics, all that makes conduct center about obligation, good though these are, does not touch the vital spot of morality, which is rooted in reli- gion. Children must have a sense of God as a giver of laws, whose demand is right because he wills it ; and certainly at adolescence there must be religion to guide the moral life, if at no other time. The only method now open to the school, to preserve the good of the old religious teaching, without sacrificing secular ideals of education, is to have religion taught in the school by clergymen, each teaching the children of his own denomination. Failing this, religion as such is likely to be lost entirely from the school, and to be replaced by the inadequate method of moral teaching, depending upon literature and history for culture materials. "If the Christian religion is to be taught at all in the school, it should be presented with the same attention to the nature of the SOME FURTHER OPINIONS 35 child as is given in any other subject of the curriculum. Failure to do this has in the past robbed the child of the great good that can be gained from the literary study of the Bible. It has been taught unpedagogically, because of overemphasis upon doctrine and, in general, upon the adult's interests. The recapitulatory principle may now correct this, and put the teaching of the Bible upon a new basis, for it leaves little doubt about the order and manner in which it should be taught. Before adolescence the child is morally in the stage of external authority, when, indeed, all his interests tend to be objective. For this period and interest, the religion of the Old Testament is precisely adapted. Its stories appeal strongly to the child's mind. Its heroic themes, its tales of wonder, battle, law, and punishment, its vividness in expression of all the elemental passions, reach the child's heart. • •••••• "The Bible should be supplemented at some points by selections from other religions, and perhaps ought to be preceded by more primi- tive religious stories. Classic and Hindu mythology and the bibles of other religions 36 CEEED AND CUEEICULUM contain many themes, suited to the early stages of religious development, that are not sufficiently represented in our Bible to fully satisfy the genetic principle. Christianity grew out of other forms of religion, which in part still remain, or are paralleled in the religions of to-day. Sympathetic study of all these lower forms of faith is needed, for the purpose of bringing their culture to the serv- ice of the Christian child.'' It will be clearly perceived from these paragraphs that the genetic philosophy as explained by the author necessitates the im- parting of religious instruction in the insti- tution supported by the Christian state, if education in any proper sense of the word is the function of that institution. We may not be in accord, however, with the method which the author says is the only method now open to the school, namely, the introduction of clergymen each to teach the children of his own denomination. This plan is certainly open to some serious objections. It empha- sizes denominationalism. It cannot consist- ently become a part of a compulsory system of education in a country which has decreed the absolute independence of church and SOME FURTHER OPINIONS 37 state. In many places it would be found utterly impracticable. It could not be depended on to accomplish much that is not now accomplished by the Sunday school, young people's organizations, and Bible classes. It has the fatal weakness of dis- criminating against religion as not being entitled to an honored place in the regular curriculum. The example of foreign coun- tries may be cited in its favor, but this is an American problem and must be settled in the American way. Should our discussion ad- vance to the point of comparing the merits of various methods, it will be necessary to take up these objections more in detail, but for the present it suffices to have shown the attitude of one who has long been regarded in many quarters as an authority, and whose knowl- edge of educational matters in general no one will question. A few years ago Mr. Charles Edward Rugh, of Oakland, California, distinguished himself by winning first prize in a contest for the best essay on "Moral Training in the Public School." In one place the essayist declares that the problem of moral training cannot be thrust back upon the home and church. 38 CREED AND CUERICULUM "They must do their part ; but the whole child plays, learns, and lives at home and away from home; and the whole child comes to school. The teacher must grasp the whole situation in order to do her part.'' And the state must grasp the whole situation in order to do its part. The failure of the state to do this is far more disastrous than the failure of the teacher. The child — the whole child — is the pivotal point of the public school system and without him, or without any part of him, the system goes agog. Neglect the religious side of his nature, and the remainder is but a small fraction of the whole. An educated fraction is still inferior to an uneducated unit. The baker who leaves the loaf half baked would do better to let the flour alone. We, the people, so boastful of our prerogative of self-government must have a care lest by our bungling we forfeit our sacred heritage — and we can hardly bungle worse than to mis- take training for education. We have to do with the whole child and are basely untrue to our trust unless we seek to bring him into conscious relationship with the moral order of the universe and of the ages. For this purpose religion is divinely appointed. SOME FURTHER OPINIONS 39 As for sectarianism Mr. Rugh stated the case in a remarkably simple yet perfectly clear analysis as follows : ^^Tlie churches hold to the religious sanc- tions for morality, and demand the use of the Bible in education. They have prepared the three plans which follow: "1. Let churches agree upon a common creed concerning God, duty, and immortality, and found moral training on such a creed. "2. Separate the pupils into classes accord- ing to sectarian affiliations, and turn them over to their own clergymen or teachers. The high authority of Germany is quoted in sup- port of this plan. ^^3. Let each sect build its own schools and draw upon public funds in proportion to the number of children under instruction. "These sectarian plans are inconsistent with the spirit of modern democracy." As for Felix Adler's theory of ethical cul- ture without reference to sanctions for con- duct the writer says : "This solution is correct and safe for boys or girls who cannot or do not ask ^Why?' But most American boys and girls do ask ^Why?' and a refusal to satisfy this craving of the rational soul raises the 40 CKEED AND CURKICULUM suspicion whether there be good reasons for doing what is required." Religion furnishes the sanction and the all- sufficient reason for moral conduct and the only adequate way to teach morality in its beauty is to teach religion in its simplicity. Still another paragraph from Mr. Rugh's essay may be of value in this connection : "For the present, constitutional limitations and State laws have determined the practice of the teacher in regard to the formal presen- tation of the Bible and religious instruction in many public schools. The Hebrew race and the Bible have been the two mightiest forces in the moral uplift of mankind, and until the teacher is as free to use the inspiring and in- structive literature of the Bible as she is to use the Iliad and the Koran and the poetry of the other races, we are limiting the teacher in the use of efficient means of moral training, and therefore this is not a closed question; but teachers need not suspend moral training until this question is settled. The Bible is only one of the means. The problem of the hour is how to make the present situation and the means now within our reach yield the largest possible returns." SOME FURTHEK OPINIONS 41 To make the best use of the situation is commendable, to be sure, but we must not excuse ourselves from trying to better the situation. The problem of the hour is not to make the best of a confessedly bad situation, rather it is to make the situation itself just what it ought to be. The opportunist may walk a pleasanter path than the reformer, but the reformer is needed to make paths pleasanter for those who are to follow. One of the ancient Egyp- tian kings has sent his name echoing down the centuries with the significant title "The Bet- terer." Not to agonize over the things we cannot help, but to contend valiantly against the things we should not endure — this must ever be the program of useful citizenship. Dr. William E. Chancellor in his excellent work, "Our Schools: Their Administration and Supervision," catalogues eight great social institutions as follows: Property, Family, Church, State, Occupation, School, Culture, Charity. It would appear that the author does not sufficiently consider the necessary interrelation of these institutions when he writes : "To make religion the basis of educa- tion is to return into the past before churches 42 CEEED AND CURRICULUM and schools were differentiated from temples and were developed as independent and inte- gral social institutions. It is to convert the school partly into a church and to do this whether the instruction is general or denomi- national/' There is a difference assuredly between making religion the basis of education and giving it deserved attention in the curriculum. What we really need to know is how to do this w^ithout "converting the school partly into a church" in the denominational sense. If the objection means that the forms of truth for which all churches stand, that is, the necessary and universal content of religion, cannot be allowed entrance into the schools without converting them into churches, many might devoutly wish the conversion to be accomplished. As a purely American propo- sition the change would be decidedly in the nation's favor. As an educational proposition it would react advantageously upon the schools. As a religious proposition it would strengthen all the churches and affect, health- fully, multitudes of the churchless. Have we not expected this much of our schools from the beginning? IV IN OTHER LANDS It must not be inferred from anything that has gone before or from anything that may come after in this discussion that the writer is among those who would fill the land with clamorings of criticism against the public schools. So far is this from being true that the very submission of the question, "Is the public school a failure?^' seems to him little short of an impiety. Is the family a failure because there are godless and loveless families? This fundamental institution of society has not yet evolved an era of unquali- fied domestic felicity where every man sits serenely under his own vine and fig tree caressed by a devoted spouse and adored by dutiful children. Marital affairs still get woe- fully tangled, divorce courts are busy, jan- gling skeletons hang in many closets, brother still goes to law against brother, and every community has its quota of infidelities and infelicities. Yet the family is not a failure. It rests on eternal foundations and fulfills a 43 44 CEEED AND CUERIOULUM divine mission in human society. Civilization recognizes the sanctity of the home. Is the church a failure because the unre- generate are in such numbers among us and because the organization sometimes lags be- hind other institutions in the onward and upward march of mankind? Is government a failure because it can maintain itself only at the expense of navies and armies and courts and jails? Is civilization a failure because it is seamed and scarred with rebel- lions and revolutions, distorted by interne- cine wars, burdened with poverty, stained with crime, cursed by cruelties, and disfigured by tyrannies? No, ten thousand times. No! And the school is no more a failure than are civilization, government, church, and family. The school is not godless, either, save in the sense that there is no adequate uniform and compulsory provision for the teaching of the fundamental truths of God in our public school system. God is in the schools to the extent that he is in the hearts and characters of principals and teachers and to the extent that they are permitted to inculcate the beautiful things of the kingdom for the more perfect unfolding of the child's life. Our contention IN OTHEK LANDS 45 is, however, that we owe it to God and to the children to make the instruction authoritative, uniform, impartial, comprehensive, and peda- gogically sound and effective. Until this is done there is some justification for the appli- cation of the word "godless'^ to the public school system. It is usually wise to cast about and see what other countries are doing in the direc- tion along which we seek to move. Care should be taken, however, not to construct an argument on the false premise that what others are doing we can and should do. We are called upon to work out our problem under conditions that confront no other nation, and we must be bold enough to adopt untried remedies, yet sensible enough to learn all we can from the experiences of others. Of this one thing we can be absolutely certain, namely, that the general principle of reli- gious instruction in schools maintained by the government has practical recognition in all countries of Christendom. The value of this fact as an argument in the present dis- cussion may be realized by imagining the opposite to be true. Suppose that the older nations had renounced the principle and that 46 CREED AND CURRICULUM through long experimentation the unwisdom of it had been demonstrated to the extent that no European system of public instruction could be cited as its exponent. Against such a weight of testimony the American educator would hardly presume to lift a voice. We do not controvert the history of education, nor do we gainsay the experience of enlightened nations when we accept the doctrine and put the custom into practice. The methods employed by European coun- tries to accomplish the desired end show some little uniformity, but do not furnish a pattern for our American schools. Imagine the United States peopled by citizens all confess- ing the same faith, following the same reli- gious ideals, serving the same ecclesiastical organizations, and recognizing the same spiritual leadership. Strong-pinioned indeed must be the imagination to compass the flight. The ninety millions of us tabulated in the census are split up into some one hundred and seventy sects or denominations, and have no idea of abolishing the distinguishing lines. Our "union" celebrated in song and ^apotheo- sized in history is a political, not a religious union. Were it otherwise — say with Epis- IN OTHER LANDS 47 copalianism or CongTegatio^alism or Roman- ism as the prevailing and predominating type — religious instruction in the schools would be determined by that type and would be accepted as a natural procedure. Such is practically the case in countries like Norway and Sweden. There is found a homogeneous population, fully ninety per cent of whom are allied with the Lutheran Church. In the primary and secondary schools doctrinal teaching is as unchallenged as it is in the churches, and no one has occasion to call them godless. Popular education is older in Sweden than in any other European country, and to this fact may be attributed in part the democratic tendencies so unmistakable in recent affairs. Socialism is on the increase, and the unrest of the people is more and more in evidence. It is well for the future of the country that the restraints as well as the in- centives of staunch religious beliefs will con- stitute a factor in any uprising or revolution that may occur. In Germany we have another country where the teachings of Martin Luther have been so widely accepted that the introduction of dog- matic instruction into the schools has fol- 48 CKEED AND CUKEICULUM lowed as a natural consequence. Strong protest is now being offered against the char- acter of this instruction, and for opposite reasons. To religionists it is too pedantic and to educationists it is too unpedagogical. Four or five hours a week are assigned to this kind of instruction, Lutheran ministers tak- ing charge of the classes and imparting reli- gious knowledge according to the tenets of their own faith. More recently, the same door of opportunity has been opened to other denominations under the broadening influ- ence of the freer opinions of the present generation. In Germany, therefore, we have an example of a country of the highest educa- tional ideals bringing its elementary school system into complete yoke-fellowship with its church system. How much longer this prac- tice can be continued it would be difficult to say, as it must meet from year to year an ever-increasing tide of opposition from those classes of society which refuse to render sub- servience to dogmatic faiths. Perhaps Ger- many will even yet teach us how to avoid the shoals of dogma without abandoning the good ship of vital religion. France seems to have given every possible IN OTHEK LANDS 49 emphasis to morals as a subject for school instruction, while the law provides for one day a week as a time for such religious in- struction outside the school as parents and pastors may wish to impart. Thus morals are taught and religion is recognized in the governmental scheme of education. There is some danger in this distinction between the two, and France has come into an unenviable reputation partly on account of it. Moral maxims are but so many pretty pictures, forms without vitality. No race and no indi- vidual ever became virtuous simply by enu- merating the virtues. France has been pain- fully careful about the teaching of morals, yet has no shining reputation for morality. In providing the week-day opportunity for religious instruction, however, she has gone further in the way of a formal approval of religion as an educational essential than have we as a nation in our present attitude or as a group of States in our various practices. Italy is hardly behind France in the codal provision for the teaching of morals in the gTaded schools. There is no definite arrange- ment, however, for the teaching of religion, dogmatism being considered evidently a 50 CKEED AND CURKICULUM necessary and a dangerous concomitant. In district schools religious instruction is optional. When there is practical uniformity of religious belief in the commune, it is per- missible for priests or ministers to enter the school and give such counsel as may seem most suitable, or convey such knowledge as may best fit the needs and capacities of young Italy. After fifty years of history, United Italy is displaying an intellectual vigor and is taking an interest in the cause of popular education that augurs well for the coming years. The name of one of the daughters of Italy is now found frequently in educational periodicals and upon the lips of convention speakers. She is hailed as a pioneer in the use of a method which bears her own name. It may yet be discovered that Madame Mon- tessori is a symptom rather than a solecism. The historic shores of the Mediterranean are sending forth a light to glorify the high places of modern education. It is to be hoped that, no matter what course educational enterprises may take, the trend of popular elementary instruction will not be toward irreligion. In avoiding one extreme there is usually danger of swinging to another. This IN OTHER LANDS 51 is a problem in Italy as it is in our own land, and great wisdom and great courage will be needed for its proper solution. The same observation may be made in regard to England, where the desire of the people seems to be for the recognition of reli- gion in secular education with the lines closely drawn against sectarianism. In fact, this has been for years a live question throughout the kingdom. Commendable progress has been made toward setting edu- cation free from the limitations of ecclesias- ticism. More and more, England has become democratized, a process which, of course, must affect and be affected by the conditions of popular education. The alliance of church and state is the conspicuous factor in the case. After pointing out conditions in various countries the last annual report of the New York State Department of Education gives conclusions as follows : "We have now gone as far as we ought in showing world interest in our subject, and something of the trend of opinion among other nations of widely different religious and educational circumstances. Wherever we miffht go we should find much the same thing. 52 CEEED AND CUERICULUM Everywhere, morality is recognized as an im- perative factor in education. No objection is heard in any quarter against the inculcation of the moral virtues in the schools. Wherever substantially all the people are of one reli- gious sect, objection is, of course, not made to the propagation of the peculiar tenets of that sect through the schools. Where new and considerable factors have entered into the population and brought different religious beliefs with them, strong objection has been offered to the promotion of sectarian religion in the schools. This has been equally true where a people has enjoyed marked intellec- tual development." In a country of, for, and by the people the question is purely one of the popular will positively expressed or negatively withheld. Where the populace is heterogeneous the popular will is difficult to determine. In questions of this kind the will is a matter of creed and denominational attachment. The more varied the creeds and the more multi- tudinous the denominations, the more com- plicated is the situation. In addition, the American people have declared for toleration in religious matters and have boldly written IN OTHER LANDS 53 it in the Constitution that they proposed to accord to each citizen the absolute right of free choice without governmental or legisla- tive interference. This means that even if the popular will should be determined by a ma- jority vote, the case is one in which the minority have rights that cannot be ignored. Here we have to do not with one but with scores of religious divisions. Some of these could be counted on to vote together on any proposition not directly affecting their own tenets. There would still be cleavages so many and so wide that unanimity is unthink- able. We are a complex people racially and religiously and we have agreed to a peaceful and tolerant complexity. This is American- ism. This Americanism of ours is a thing to be revered and perpetuated. It is sacred soil not to be desecrated, it is a holy treaty not to be violated. This problem of religion in the schools must be solved, if solved at all, without violence to the spirit of our glorious Americanism. It is our hope and our con- viction, moreover, that this very ideal or con- cept that we proudly call Americanism con- tains within itself the successful solution of the problem of religion in American public 54 CEEED AND CUKEICULUM schools. When we understand ourselves bet- ter we shall be better prepared for this and for many other duties arising out of rapidly changing social, political, and industrial con- ditions. If Americanism is the big thing we believe it to be, it is big enough to carry every load that the new age has put upon it. The ultimate dispersion of the darkness in which many of our most vital issues are now envel- oped is as sure as the morrow's dawn. THE TESTIMONY OF PRIMITIVE MAN "All gentlemen have the same religion.'' "What religion is that?'' "No gentleman will ever tell." This familiar statement, question, and an- swer, having been assigned a more or less respectable place in literature, will serve as a reminder of the present need of gentlemanli- ness in matters having to do with religion. A man does not compromise himself, nor should he be held false to his convictions when for the sake of peace and progress he puts his religious beliefs into the background and advances only such as will meet the emer- gency. Unless this principle be accepted we may well desjDair of any more intimate and effective affiliation between our public schools and our public morals. No citizen is asked to transfer his attachments, to alter his creed, or to forswear the faith of his fathers even to effect the elevation of his generation to clearer moral atmospheres. It is incumbent upon us all, however, to perform the gentle- 55 56 CKEED AND CUERICULUM manly office of respecting each the preference and conviction of the other by remaining silent when speech will give offense and by speaking when silence would impede true progress. How many of us may be magnani- mous enough to practice such a virtue can be determined only by actual test. It is a clear question of intelligence and character. Gerhart Hauptmann, philosopher and poet, recently winner of the Nobel Prize for Litera- ture, on his fiftieth birthday wrote an article in which he gave his views as to the religion of the future. The first paragraph reads: "Tolerance is the religion of the future. It is based upon complete consideration for one's neighbor. Without tolerance there is no liberty. There is, to be sure, a religious truth, but it is not of such a form that it precludes many-sided religious truths. The tolerant Chinaman says, ^Brother, how beautiful is thy religion !' " We are not ready to make a religion of tolerance, but we must admit that intoler- ance is an evidence of the falsity rather than of the truth of any religion. When Protes- tant, Eomanist, and Jew clasp hands for the advancement of the common cause of truth. TESTIMONY OF PRIMITIVE MAN 57 still loving their own religions, but loving religion more, then shall we speedily eat of the fruit of tolerance, which is an abiding faith that inspires to righteousness. This faith is the birthright of every child receiving instruction in our public schools. At present, many are being robbed of this birthright by suspicion and jealousy — detestable mis- creants, masquerading as defenders, but per- forming the works of the devil. The time has come in our rather dis- cursive treatment of the subject when we should proceed to get into the possession of such concrete facts as may enable us to formu- late finally some reasonable plan of action. It seems natural and perfectly logical to in- terrogate the history of education to discover what light it has to throw upon our path- way. We are not attempting an elaborate scientific treatise, otherwise we might be com- pelled to perform the arduous labor of ana- lyzing systems, tabulating statistics, and balancing theories. Such w^ork to be conclu- sive would require a degree of scholarly attainment to Avhich the writer has no claim, but he begs to suggest it as a theme that might worthily occupy the brain of the deepest 58 CEEED AND CUEEICULUM thinker and the time of the most patient in- vestigator. For present purposes it will be sufficient to allude to certain familiar phases of edu- cational development, such as may be studied in the threefold classification — Primitive, Non-Christian, and Christian peoples. In no age has the primitive man been given so much attention as in our own. The impor- tance of the subject is realized as it never has been. Modern theories of education require a knowledge of the origins of the educative process to substantiate themselves. If the 'history of the race is recapitulated in the career of the child, then we are fitted to deal with the child whose psychology is that of the undisciplined denizen of forest and fastness, only as we understand the manifestations of the human mind under the most primitive conditions. Vice versa, it can be said that the better we understand the child the better we can interpret the savage. Only thus can we construct on sure foundations the educational theory that will result in wise educative prac- tices. Turning, then, to the primitive man as he has been described to us by anthropologists, TESTIMONY OF PRIMITIVE MAN 59 and remembering that he is not only the an- cestor of civilized races, but exists to-day in certain quarters of the world in all his rude- ness and crudeness, we find that he is first and foremost all and in all religious, and that all recognized cultural powers and pro- clivities are traceable to this trait and tend- ency. In the primitive man's religious nature we find the fountain head of all distinctively educational activities. The religious instinct, and the attempt to relate themselves to un- seen powers resulted in the weird ceremonials of savage tribes. Ceremonials required ad- ministrants — ^hence the priestly class. The need of instruction in ceremonial secrets and observances developed the teaching functions and produced the teaching class. As we read in Monroe's Text Book on the History of Edu- cation, "The inquiry into the meaning of these ceremonials and the attempt at a further in- terpretation of doctrines beyond that given to the multitude gave rise to the first real process of instruction and the first distinct educational institutions." The text is accom- panied by a remarkable photograph of an initiation scene by Shamans of a tribe in cen- tral Australia. It is a long, long reach from 60 CREED AND CURRICULUM that instructional ceremony to the exercises in a modern school or college classroom, but the antecedent relationship of the former to the latter is as certain as that of seed to harvest. The intrinsically religious nature of the primitive man is shown in his attempt to explain natural phenomena by attributing them to the operations of spiritual agencies. This belief we call animism — it is religion in its simplest terms. Out of it the dogmas of the ages have grown. To quote a writer in the Encyclopedia Britannica, "The history of animism once clearly traced would record the development, not of religion only, but of philosophy, science, and literature." The cultural importance of this streak of re- ligious aptitude fundamental in human nature is illustrated in a recent volume by E. N. and G. E. Partridge on so entrancing and practical a subject as Story Telling in School and Home: "If one would understand the origin of stories, he must put himself, in im- agination, into the conditions, both inner and outer, in which primitive man lived. He will see that life must have been saturated in a mood which, broadly speaking, was religious. The religious mood, however, is not merely a TESTIMONY OF PRIMITIVE MAN 61 passive feeling, but is alive with eagerness to know, with a sense of a vast unknown beyond the small clearing in the universe of facts which the mind has been able to make. It is an aptitude of desire. Fear and awe express human longings — longings which sometimes cannot be spoken nor even whispered to one- self." True to their genetic philosophy, the authors of this interesting book have shown how these primitive stories and ancient myths arose out of fundamental needs and desires. The religious "mood" is in reality an inevi- table and universal trait among the luntu- tored. It is as closely identified with the primitive man's sentient self as atmosphere with lungs and blood with heart. It was, it is, the humanity of the human animal. We cannot deal wath ethnic history and ignore this generic symptom. Religion is a part of the racial cosmos. This is the starting point of human history. Back of this it is futile to attempt to penetrate. The finite intelli- gence cannot circumscribe infinity. Religi- osity of mind can be explained no better than nebulosity of matter. Out of the nebulae, however, we can track the evolving worlds. 62 CKEED AND CUEKICULUM and out of the religious mood we can track the evolution of education. One may claim that just as nebula has become system, so religion has become intelligence, and it is to be studied as a characteristic of chaos rather than a culmination of creative energy. That is, from this viewpoint, the educative process has carried us up and beyond the need of the religious incentive and therefore the school of an improved age may ignore religion save as a phenomenon of primitive epochs. It is indeed regrettable that there are some learned ones among us who hang their argu- ments on such filmy threads and will declare that high civilization has passed through and is forever above the need of supernatural in- fluences. The fire-stuff of the nebula has become the planet-stuff of the system. Chang- ing configurations do not argue change in content and substance. Man is still a spiritual being, however far he may have advanced from and beyond primitive condi- tions and conceptions. Keligion is an eternal necessity. The constitution of the child calls for spiritual adjustment just as the mind of primitive man constructs an animistic world for itself in response to its own appeal. TESTIMONY OF PRIMITIVE MAN 63 That society is obligated to assist in the adjustment is hardly open to controversy. The method and measure of such assistance are problematical. How large a share the school must take in the work is to be deter- mined. If the experience of the ages is to be put at the disposal of the indiyidual the school is, of all institutions, the one best equipped to contribute the knowledge of the rudiments of religious development. The emotional and doctrinal phases of experi- mental and theoretical religion may still lie more strictly within the province of home and church nurturing, but the foundations of the spiritual and moral structure in thou- sands of cases are to be planted, if at all, by the instruction of the classroom. This child of ours, thank heaven, does not live under the tutelage of wizards, exorcists, and medicine men, nor do we paint his body with totem symbols. For him civilization provides a school and teacher. Thus we link him with the w^orld and with the ages. Having already referred to the book on Story-Telling by E. N. and G. E. Partridge, it is very satisfying to note that the authors have inserted a chapter on "The Child's Reli- 64 CREED AND CUEEICULUM gion." The following quotation lends itself perfectly to the purpose of our argument : "Eeligion is a means of preserving and expressing such attitudes of the individual as will foster the completion in him of the growth which nature itself is trying to carry on ; a process in which he is to be transformed from a playing irresponsible child to a work- ing devoted adult. Religion is an attitude that keeps him balanced in this transforma- tion, and true to the course of development. "If this be true, the inculcation of an ade- quate God-consciousness must b^ the work not merely of the church but of all institu- tions which undertake to influence the child: the school, the home, the playground. Such teaching by no means ends, nor perhaps begins, with the teaching of the Bible and the tenets of the Christian religion. Much of secular culture goes directly to the desired end'' (p. 128). Much harm has been done by the current overemphasis on the distinction between "secular'' and "sacred." Thus many seem to regard religion as something quite aside from the practical considerations of everyday life. One of the advantages of teaching religion TESTIMONY OF PRIMITIVE MAN 65 in public schools would be the inculcation of the belief that all things secular have a spiritual significance, and that all things spiritual have a secular application. VI PEIMITIVE MAN AND EDUCATION The inferences to be drawn from a study of education among primitive peoples are so significant and the subject itself is of such engrossing interest that it seems impossible to dismiss it without some further comment. In the broadest sense, the acquirement of knowledge of any sort and the development of skill in any direction may be considered as a part of the educational career of the indi- vidual. The children of the most savage races surely acquire some knowledge of their envi- ronment and some power of adjusting them- selves to it through the instinctive imitation of their elders. Nor is it quite possible to conceive a state of savagery so absolute that the adults of such a society will make no conscious attempts to direct the child mind in its unfolding and the child hand in its groping. The requirements imposed by nature, such as food, clothing, and shelter, are to be obtained by some more or less intelli- gent effort, and when the individual has 66 PRIMITIVE MAN AND EDUCATION 67 learned how to meet these demands he is educated to this extent, if we wish so to apply the term. Yet, antithetically, he has no edu- cation. Had not some families of the race been endowed with higher aspirations than those represented in satisfying the barest demands of the physical nature, the word "education" would never have been heard on this planet, and there would be no schools, no churches, no courts, no bridges arching the roaring rivers, and no steamers churning the brine, no literature, no history. Some misan- thrope may say, " 'Twere better so." For such as he, perhaps, he may speak truly. For the rest of us, we are glad to be living in an age from whose towering height we can look back over the rugged slopes along which hope- ful centuries haye trailed their way to mas- tery. The history of education epitomizes the march of mankind from the midnight of savagery to the midday of civilization. Always the spur of the marching and the fighting has been man's unwillingness to be satisfied with mere physical necessities. His own restlessness created new appetites as soon as the old appetite was appeased. He 68 CREED AND CURRICULUM was not satisfied with the testimony of his eyes that his earth home bore such and such appearances. He demanded explanations. He invented answers. Hunting and fishing, playing and fighting, mating and reproducing his kind, were sufficient for the primitive man as an animal. But he was more than an animal. The mind has its hunger as well as the body. So there came incantations and sorceries, initiations and sacrifices, symbol- isms and ceremonies, shrines and temples, priests and teachers, schools^ — education in the real sense. Somewhere back in the wild cere- monialisms of primitive worship lurked the germ of all the sciences and of all the humani- ties. That was the childhood of the race — a childhood reproducing itself in every child, psychologically considered. Nature provides a foundation for all learning in the spiritual sensibilities of the child. Upon that founda- tion let the superstructure stand, defiant of blowing wind and beating wave, for it is builded upon a rock. Further, let the little learner understand, as early as he may, the sources of his strength as the long centuries have revealed them. Otherwise, education wanders and wabbles. Some present-daj PKIMITIVE MAN AND EDUCATION 69 failures in cultural enterprises are due un- doubtedly to our strange timidity in ap- proaching these basic and sacred duties. It is not a matter for the home, it is not a matter for the church exclusively; it is a matter of scientific and complete education, a matter of dealing faithfully with the whole child — physical, mental, moral — therefore, a matter primarily and preeminently for the public school. Much of the meaning of Totemism is still shrouded in mystery, but the monumental work of Frazer in his Totemism and Exog- amy throws the high lights of modern and exhaustive research upon the difficult sub- ject. As a possible corrective of unwarranted conclusions, Mr. Andrew Lang's The Secret of the Totem may be read. "Totem'' is an O jib way work given to classes of material objects which the savage regards with super- stitious respect. Totemism is of immense significance, as it affects both society and religion. In its religious aspect, distinctions are discovered similar to those made by more civilized people between "right" and "wrong." The relation of the sexes was determined in accordance with totemistic beliefs. This is 70 CEEED AND CURRICULUM the question ever thrusting itself into the foreground of the realm of morals, and it seems evident that moral responsibilities were first recognized as religious implications rather than as social expedients. What sig- nifies this? That morality and religion are interrelated as warp and woof of the same tex- ture. Does not culture presuppose character? Character is the painting produced by the colors from the palette of morals, whose pig- ments are found in the religious motive. The order follows: no pigment, no blending, no picture. In other words, the experience of the race from its earliest childhood teaches the fundamental and intrinsic value of reli- gious concepts, demonstrates their procreative relationship to moral ideas and practices, proves their cultural efficiency. VII AN AMERICAN CRITICISM AND AN AUSTRALIAN EXPERIMENT Now^ to return from the remote primitive to the immediate present — for our discussion aims to be practical rather than philosophi- cal — why such a deliverance as this from a correspondent of Harper's Weekly? "Teachers Who Don^t Know "We of the United States seem to have turned the Bible out of the public schools and put in the flag, and, since religion is needed in education, the disposition is now to have a flag religion with an appropriate ritual. "Better than none, no doubt. Its defects, at least, are like the defects of other religions. It is adopted and straightway inconsiderate people want to enforce it by compulsion. As if that had not been sufficiently tried out in the last thousand years. If it were ordered that public-school children should read the Bible and some of them wouldn't, to compel them would be recognized as religious perse- 71 72 CKEED AND CURRICULUM cution. But when it is ordered that they shall salute the flag and a few take a notion not to, the compulsory measures that sometimes fol- low are not recognized as of the family of our old friend who kindled fires at Smithfield and was so handy with the thumbscrew and the rack. "Two little school-girls in Salt Lake City got the idea that they were Socialists (a paper says) and wouldn't salute the flag. Whereupon the Utah State Teachers' Asso- ciation, finding a lack of temporal authority to regulate these young politicians, passed a recommendation for an amendment to the State Constitution making the teaching of patriotism compulsory in the public schools. "Who will teach these teachers, first, that the State Constitution is not a fit place to record rules about schools, and, second, that compulsory patriotism, like compulsory reli- gion, is not worth anything when taught? Don't the teachers know that our flag stands for freedom and that freedom is a condition from which unnecessary compulsions have been eliminated?" How we do detest compulsion in this land o' freedom! That is, when compulsion hits CRITICISM AND EXPERIMENT 73 the sore spot. Compulsory education? Yes, indeed. Compulsory arithmetic, compulsory grammar, compulsory geography, compulsory music, compulsory dressmaking, compulsory composition, compulsory gymnastics, compul- sory dramatics — but compulsory patriotism, compulsory religion! Smoke of Smithfield fires! Yet Smithfield is only a London market. No! No! The cause of religious liberty enjoys a perfect and a permanent triumph. We are in no peril of tyranny, except the tyranny of our prejudices. The vigilance which is the price of our liberty is a pet occu- pation with us. We shall not exercise our- selves the less in this direction when we prac- tice compulsion in fundamentals the more. It is not expected that the child shall be coerced into religious forms of forbidding aspect and loaded with dogmas difficult of comprehension. Any true religious education adjusts itself to the fact of individuality and to the certainty of change. Courage is better than consistency. Unanimity in beliefs is not to be expected. The religious instruction imparted in church and home rarely considers this vital truth with sufficient wisdom and 74 CEEED AND CURRICULUM boldness. All the more necessity is there for the scientific kind of instruction that could be presented under public school auspices. Professor Jenks, in Citizenship and the Schools, has put the case plainly and sympa- thetically: "Even in religious institutions changes come that bring often untold suffer- ing. I need only refer to the persecutions of the Middle Ages and the Reformation. Even to-day, men burn, though not at the stake, because they think in advance of their time. Many a person joining a church in his younger days finds that as his sympathies broaden, as his range of spiritual vision extends, he no longer places the same emphasis on certain dogmas as before. His fellow church mem- bers may consider him unfaithful to his duty; he may even be made to feel that he has wounded grievously the hearts of those most dear to him — but he cannot go back. He may in his suffering impatiently blame his critics for their narrowness; but this is equally un- just. They cannot come with him. No one is to blame. The religious institution is not adjustable to his needs. When he reaches the height from which he can overlook the whole field he will see that, as there must be differ- CRITICISM AND EXPERIMENT 75 ent political or social groups to suit the vari- ous political or social beliefs, so must there be various religious groups to fit the changing religious needs." Under the proper guidance the pupil ad- vancing through childhood and adolescence to maturity would come to understand the beauty of loyalty to the institutions of his fathers as well as the glory of the liberty wherewith he has been set free. Loyalty and liberty! — ^words musical with meaning. To have our young people well trained in both would mean life to the nation. The school must do its part. The Indian who held the turtle as his totem was living on the low mental plane where it was perfectly reasonable to believe that his tribe originated with a giant turtle who suc- ceeded in throwing off his immense shell and, freed from that encumbrance, grew to the likeness and proportions of a man. Other tribes explained their origins in similarly grotesque fashions. Such beliefs are in them- selves marks of the savage state. Perhaps, occasionally, it would occur to some member of the tribe to question the correctness of the story, to pry into its authenticity. Perhaps 76 CREED AND CURRICULUM not. That some sinned in not observing the prescribed signs of reverence for the totemic animal is evident, as punishments were pre- scribed to fit the crime. Transgression is a sign neither of savagery nor civilization. Children cry and pout and fib and fight to-day just as they have ever done, and just as their elders do in the style characteristic of their years. Sin still lieth at the door millenniums after the poet of Genesis wrote his imperish- able Scripture. Let us follow no chimeras, neither let us raise alarming bugaboos. Teaching religion in the schools has not and will not solve all our moral and social prob- lems. Yet in these days of clamoring for "social justice,'' it will be well to think of "spiritual justice,'' and on this ground alone to recognize the right of every young Ameri- can to definite instruction in the things that have to do with the spirit and its destiny. To illustrate the practicability of such a course, the following is appended. It is taken from a circular recently issued in the course of a campaign for a better system in the schools of Victoria, Australia : "It is now desired that Victoria shall fall into line with these States (New South CKITICISM AND EXPERIMENT 77 Waleg, West Australia, and Tasmania) and adopt the New South Wales system. "The New South Wales Act, Clauses 7, 17, and 18, provides : " 7. In all Schools under this Act the teaching shall be strictly nonsectarian, but the words 'Secular Instruction' shall be held to include general re- ligious teaching as distinguished from dog- matical or polemical theology. Under this clause the school-teacher in school hours gives selected Bible lessons from a book provided for the purpose, but is not allowed to give sectarian teaching. "17. Any minister of religion is entitled in school hours, on days to be arranged with the School Committee, to give children of his own de- nomination, separated from others, an hour's religious instruction. "18. Any parent may withdraw his child from all religious teaching if he objects to such religious instruction being given." Here also is an instructive bit of corre- spondence : "Sir: "In compliance with your personal request, I have the honor to furnish the following in- formation in connection with the religious instruction given in the Public Schools of this State. 78 CREED AND CURRICULUM "As you are aware, the teaching in our schools is strictly nonsectarian, but general religious teaching, as distinguished from dog- matic theology, forms part of the course of secular instruction as provided in Section 7 of the Public Instruction Act. A copy of the Act is forwarded under separate cover. At- tention is invited to Clauses 7, 17, and 18. "This religious teaching is placed on exactly the same footing as geography, gram- mar, or any other subject, and at the annual inspection of schools. Scripture receives the same consideration as any other subject. In the junior classes, when children are unable to read, all lessons are given orally in the form of stories drawn from the authorized Scripture lessons on the Old and New Testa- ment. In classes above the second, the Irish National Board's Scripture Lesson Books are regularly read and lessons in Civics and Morals are given as provided in the Syllabus of Instruction, a copy of which is also for- warded. All teachers, irrespective of creed, are required to teach these Scripture lessons, and in no case has any refusal to do so taken place, nor has any complaint been made to the Department that the lessons have been CRITICISM AND EXPERIMENT 79 ridiculed or made liglit of. Section 18 of the Act and the Regulations framed thereunder allow a parent to withdraw his children from all religious instruction by notifying his wish in writing to the teacher. As a matter of fact, such notifications are so few that for statisti- cal purposes they may be said not to exist. The general outcome of the instruction is that all pupils receive a substantial knowl- edge of Scripture history, and are made acquainted with the moral teaching con- tained in the Bible. "With a view of obtaining a wide expres- sion of opinion upon the question as to whether the Irish National Board's Scripture Lessons are advantageous in promoting the moral and intellectual education of the pupils in Public Schools, a circular was addressed to all inspectors of schools under this De- partment, requesting them to state their views upon the matter. It was found that the large majority of these officers expressed a decided opinion that the Scripture lessons are calculated to exercise a beneficial effect upon the pupils, both morally and intellectually. The following extracts from the report of one of our most experienced inspectors may be 80 CREED AND CURRICULUM taken as representing tlie true value of the lessons : "In cases where teachers deal with the books as they would with ordinary class books, giving an intelligent exposition of the subject matter of the lesson, testing by an examination to what extent the pupils compre- hend its scope and meaning, and dwelling with judicious force and impressiveness upon such points of religion and morals as these lessons inculcate, there can be no doubt whatever of the benefits accruing. "Outside this general instruction, Section 17 of the Act provides for what is called reli- gious instruction. Any recognized clergyman or other teacher authorized by his church has the right to give to the children of his own denomination one hour's religious instruction daily. Unlike the general instruction, this may consist of worship and purely sectarian teach- ing. It is given during the ordinary school hours, and where two or more clergymen of different denominations visit, the teacher, the clergyman, and the School Board find no difficulty in making arrangements to suit all concerned. As a rule, no teacher of special religious instruction visits more than once a week. In the majority of cases the clergymen visit the schools in the morning, but should the hour prove inconvenient, the matter is CEITICISM AND EXPERIMENT 81 one for mutual arrangement between the clergymen and the teachers, and is invariably settled without any friction. Although the time set apart for religious instruction is one hour, as a rule clergymen, on becoming aware that secular instruction is divided into lessons of forty-five minutes each throughout the day, limit their instruction to a like period in order to conform with the school time-table. "At a conference of teachers, inspectors, departmental officers, and prominent educa- tionalists, held in Sydney in April, 1904, the heads of the various religious denominations within the State were present, and delivered addresses on Ethics, Civics, and Morals, in which the question of religious instruction in our schools was introduced. A copy of this conference report is forwarded under sepa- rate cover, and may be of interest to you, especially in connection with the subject under consideration. "I may add that no sectarian difficulties are found in working the clauses of the Public Instruction Act providing for general or special religious instruction to the children attending our State schools. The system has always formed a part of the school routine 82 CKEED AND CURRICULUM here, and probably only a very small percent- age of parents would like any change made. "During the year 1905 the total number of visits paid to State schools by clergymen or other religious teachers, for the purpose of important special religious instruction to children of their own denomination, was 42,481. Detailed information is given in the subjoined table: Church of England 23,769 Roman Catholic 797 Presbyterian 7,150 Methodist 7,373 Other Denominations 3,387 "I have the honor to be. Sir, "Your obedient servant, "P. Board, Under-Secretary" The above was obtained, with many other letters, by the Queensland Bible in State Schools League. The correspondence is from educational officials and is overwhelmingly favorable to the New South Wales system. Do we need a "Religion in the Public Schools League''? Can Australia teach America? VIII PRE-CHRISTIAN NATIONS Marvelous is the moving picture ! Marvelous especially when reproducing successive stages of development in animal and vegetable life. From the newly deposited egg to the mature frog jumping for the luck- less fly, no moment of the transitional process seems to be missed. From the first appearing of the bud to the perfectly formed flower with expanding petals the entire story is revealed. What nature requires months to perform, the magic film accomplishes in minutes. Could we but study history in the same manner, we might understand things now in- comprehensible, A vast chasm lies between what we know of man the primitive creature and man the constructor and citizen of a great state. Primitive traits persist. We have seen the play and power of religious sentiment over the primitive mind. It will be recognized as no less conspicuous a factor in the educational enterprises of the nations that first took the form of civilization. 83 84 CEEED AND CUERICULUM As the student switches his attention from the tribal to the national institutions of earlier times, two facts come clearly into view. One is that every nation had its dis- tinctive educational policy, and the second is that religion exercised a mighty influence and occupied a prominent position in every case. To-day, these facts may have great or little significance according to the proclivi- tes of the commentator. One will say that they but characterize an age when men were yet incapable of discerning the essential dis- tinction between church and state and that they but mark a period long, long antedating the birth of the republic in an entirely new age. Another* will say that the persistence of the religious habit and the perpetuation of religious belief and ceremonial is sufficient evidence of the supreme dignity and authority of the religious concept, and of its inalienable right to priority among the cultural pursuits of the most advanced nations in this great age of advancement. Pre-Christian nations supported their reli- gious systems and exalted their religious leaders. False, crude, absurd, dangerous as those systems may have been, they neverthe- PRE-CHEISTIAN NATIONS 85 less kept alive the grain of truth and minis- tered marvelously to the progress of man- kind. Without them and their efficacy the ancient world would have had no torch to pass on to the modern world and Christianity would have found no soil in which to take Tjoot. The ancients did well in the main to magnify religion and to subordinate educa- tion thereto. In the later days of ancient Rome, in the days before the glory departed and decadence precipitated disaster, three illustrious men towered above their fellows as educational theorists — Cicero, Seneca, Quintilian. Two of these men were contemporaries of Jesus of Nazareth. The other was born but two or three years after the tragedy of Calvary. They were not drawn under the influence of the great Galilsean, but they all emphasized in philosophy and practice the importance of moral and religious culture. To all of them education without this element would have seemed fragmentary and feeble. Seneca's principle that goodness constitutes the su- preme end of life is worthy of acceptance to the end of time, and as long as it is espoused the cause of religion will not suffer neglect. 86 CEEED AND CUERICULUM In still earlier days of Rome, far back before Greek influence molded Roman thought, the content of education embraced religion and choral service along with the Law of the Twelve Tables, practical business training for boys, and household duties for girls. One would judge that these old Romans actually maintained a beautiful balance between the cultural and the practical, a balance not yet secured in the history of education in America. We are working toward it, but need not expect to achieve it by evading the question of religion in public schools, how- ever delicate it may seem to be. The apostle Paul easily perceived that the Greeks were very religious — religious in the sense that they gave much attention to reli- gious rites and disputations. Of course this disposition influenced their educational methods. It was so thoroughly a part of the Greek habit of thought that Greek education could not proceed in indifference toward it. Bravery and reverence in the man of action was the Homeric ideal. The Spartans were neglectful of intellectual training and cared little for artistic or literary attainments, but morality was closely allied with citizenship, PEE-CHEISTIAN NATIONS 87 and what music they had was mainly religious. The Spartan boy sang of the gods of his fathers as did the Spartan soldier as he rushed into battle. In ancient Athens the educational content was incorporated under two main divisions, gymnastics and music. Music then included religion, with poetry, drama, oratory, science, and civics. This was accomplished, further- more, under a definite school system con- trolled by the state. The period of so-called New Greek Education seems to have been marked by a decline in respect for religious instruction, with the result that skepticism and selfishness came to characterize the age. Those mighty thinkers of the ancient world, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, grappled with problems of the spirit from the standpoint of knowledge rather than from that of unreasoning faith or traditional forms of worship, but they strove for moral better- ment with a truly religious enthusiasm, and their doctrines became in part the basis for Christian theology. For Aristotle, goodness became the end of existence for individual and state, and it was the prerogative of the state to shape its educational policy to that end. 88 CEEED AND CURRICULUM Those who now contend for more attention to religion on the part of our appointed edu- cators are actuated by much the same pur- pose. Real religion and real goodness seem to us joined in an eternal compact, and while moral strength may have been exhibited in many cases without acknowledgment of a religious obligation, yet religion that does not eventuate in goodness brands itself as false or ignorant, and goodness glorifies itself by reflecting glory on the religion that in- spires it. Among the Persians, Zoroaster became the great prophet and legislator, and under the religious system bearing his name a strong race of men arose loving truth, justice, and self-control. After seven years of age the boy belonged absolutely to the state, which was as solicitous for his moral as for his physical development. Only a devotedly religious race could have produced such Scriptures as compose the Bible. First in the home and later in the schools of the prophets, the Hebrews were instructed in the ways of Jehovah with such solemnity and with such persistency that a practical theocracy was maintained for cen- PKE-CHKISTIAN NATIONS 89 turies, and the race stood for religion as the Eomans did for law and the Greeks for cul- ture. One of the chief aims of Hindu education was preparation for the life to come. Among the Chinese it was the mastery of the sacred books. The Egyptians were completely domi- nated by the priests — in the pursuit of learn- ing as well as in the perpetuation of religious rites. History's great debt to religion is un- challenged. In the examples of the pre-Chris- tian nations we see religion either conspicu- ously present in, ruling over, or practically synonymous with education. What matters this to us? As a fact, it can be reasonably presented to the minds of our school children and should become to them one of the incentives toward the study of and respect for the religious institutions of the times. It would seem also amply to support the conclusion that there is in our common humanity a desire and capacity for religion that is entitled to the cognizance of those who are responsible for the educational policy of our country. To indulge once more in a favorable quota- tion, let us give attention to an article in 90 CKEED AND CUERICULUM a recent number of the Indian School Jour- nal, written by Milton Fairchild, of the Na- tional Institute for Moral Instruction, on "Moral Education in Schools and Its Relation to Religious Education" : "It is a matter of great concern, both for those in charge of public schools and those interested in religious education, that the boys and girls be given strong incitement to moral development. The argument for reli- gious education in public schools gets its force very largely from the need felt by par- ents, clergy, and school men for stronger in- fluence over the character of the boys and girls and their enlightenment as to right and wrong. The proposal that morals be taught in public schools just as other subjects are taught and as if morality had no reference to religion but were concerned exclusively with the affairs of human life upon earth, has never won general approval. As a matter of fact, the moral life of parents, of clergy, and teach- ers is directly related to their experience, to their religion, and the judgment that the child should be encouraged to recognize the direct relation between morals and religion is almost universal. There is no necessity for PRE-CHRISTIAN NATIONS 91 teaching morals in public schools in such a way as to imply anything but this intimate relationship between morals and religion. The schools can teach the old, old, old morality which is guiding the lives of religious people — parents, clergy, and teachers — and by refrain- ing from definite reference and instruction in religious doctrine avoid all complications with the principle of separation between church and state. "A child will be a unit in its personal ex- periences, and in its church it will receive religious instruction and the moral instruc- tion related thereto; the same will be true of the child's experience in its home. As a result the child's life will be religious in its own experience. If the school assumes this child religion as a basis for moral education, and proceeds to instruct the child in the appli- cation of general principles of morality to the details of everyday life in lessons on such topics as ^Conduct Becoming in a Gentle- man,' ^What People Think about Boys' Fights,' What I Am Going to Do When I Am Grown Up,' ^Sportsmanship,' ^Thrift,' Womanliness,' etc., then the emphasis given thus in school on the serious side of life will 92 CEEED AND CUEKICULUM dispose the children to keener interest in the religion taught them in their churches and homes, and the whole life of the child, the week day as well as Sunday, will be per- meated by a natural unified personal interest in both morality and religion. • • • • • • • "A serious detriment to the life of the nation is caused by the slipping away of boys and girls from all religious afflliations. A desirable result is that Catholic boys and girls continue throughout manhood and woman- hood good Catholics, and out of this lifelong church relationship gain their highest reli- gious development; also that Protestant boys and girls maintain a lifelong relationship to their churches, and Jewish boys and girls to their Jewish religious institutions. The school ought not to interfere with this con- tinuous church interest. Morality ought to be taught in school in such a way as to strengthen the interest of boys and girls in the serious side of life and dispose them to the maintenance of lifelong interest in reli- gious institutions." IX THE GKEAT TEACHER In the recent issue of Medical Inspection of Our Schools, by Gulick and Ayres, the argu- ment for medical inspection, as though argu- ment were needed, begins as follows: "Medi- cal inspection is an extension of the activities of the school in which the educator and the physician join hands to insure for each child such conditions of health and vitality as will best enable him to take full advantage of the free education offered by the state. Its object is to better health conditions among school children, safeguard them from disease, and render them healthier, happier, and more vigorous. It is founded upon a recognition of the intimate relationship between the physical and mental conditions of the chil- dren, and the consequent dependence of edu- cation on health conditions." This is clear, and it is clearly common sense. Let us see if we can make an interpo- lation that will sound equally as sensible: Religious instruction in the public schools is 93 94 CKEED AND CUERICULUM an amplification of the curriculum by which teacher, minister, and parent can join hands to insure for each child such advantages of spiritual direction as will best enable him to take full advantage of the free education offered him by the state. Its object is to better moral, social, and religious conditions throughout the nation by rendering the chil- dren more intelligently susceptible to the spiritual appeal, to safeguard them from the dangers of moral contaminations and reli- gious prejudice, and to render them happier and more vigorous to combat evil tendencies and improper habits. It is founded upon a recognition of the intimate relationship be- tween the spiritual, mental, and physical ele- ments in child-history and the consequent dependence of education on moral evaluation. Medical inspection is having its day. Twenty years ago there was not a single or- ganized system of medical inspection in the country. To-day, their necessity is unchal- lenged, and they are in existence or in pros- pect of existence everywhere. This means that we are attaching to the scheme of com- pulsory education wider significance and call- ing it to broader fields of operation. "In the THE GREAT TEACHER 95 future, compulsory education is to mean com- pulsory health.'' Good! One of the best means of bringing to pass such a condition is to quicken the conscience of the child on the subject of in- fringement of the laws of health. It is the province of religion to sensitize conscience. Teach the young the laws governing the well- being of the body and throw about them the safeguards to be secured through medical in- spection. At the same time let them under- stand that the guarding of physical health is a sacred obligation as well as a preventive of suffering — ^a religious duty arising from our relationship to the Creator and our commis- sion to keep the temple holy. So, as the scope of education broadens, we must realize more and more clearly that it must comprise those essentials of religious faith and practice that really form the basis of all our serious endeavors toward human betterment. The schools are standing for vigor of intellect, for skill of hand, for health of body, for social graces, and vocational equipment. Let them stand no less unequivocally for high-minded devotion to the Mighty One who upholdeth all things by the hand of his power. 96 CEEED AND CUERICULUM The pendulum m no fit symbol of progress. Yet succeeding eras of history and even suc- ceeding decades in a century often illustrate the pendulum principle in social transitions. The swings forward, as though impelled by some hidden mechanism, have fortunately marked the longer arcs, and thus civilization in its more conspicuous aspects touches higher and yet higher points. We may anticipate, but should never cease to oppose that reaction which may throw society back into perils greater than those from which it has arisen. Our present distrust of religious influences in state educational enterprises may be ac- counted for on the pendulum theory. We have swung back and away from the extreme of clerical domination. The extreme of reli- gionless education would be one of still greater hazard to liberty. A' glance backward at the history of the centuries and countries called Christian, remembering the deductions already drawn from a similar survey of primi- tive peoples and pre-Christian nations, will be sufficient for the summoning of the main facts that require review in connection with our thesis. No history of education can ignore the THE GEEAT TEACHER 97 character, the work, the ideals, the principles of the Founder of Christianity. No single force has; so affected education since time began. What, then, was the core of the teach- ings of Jesus, and how did his doctrines come to overshadow those of the great teachers of the ancient world? He healed the sick, so it is written, but he contributed nothing to the science of medicine. His concern was not primarily for the bodies of men. He was a laborer, but the labor problem is yet unsolved. He conducted no organized campaign for social reconstruction. His career has given to music, painting, architecture, and literature their finest conceptions and noblest incentives, but he penned no poem, he painted no picture, he designed no cathedral, and he composed no oratorio. He did not anticipate any of the great scientific discoveries that have so changed the world and the thoughts of men since his day. Many, many things he did not do which had they been done would have spared the race centuries of superstition and cycles of suffering. For not having done these things no man to-day thinks of criticizing the Son of Mary. The world is aware that he did a greater 98 CEEED AND CUEKICULUM work. He saw the heart of the world's prob- lem. That problem, too, was an educational problem — it was the problem of society, how to promote its ultimate welfare. The ancient philosophers had failed at its solution. Jesus taught the world that the problem of the ulti- mate and universal well-being of society was in reality the problem of the development of the individual member of society. This was the essential thing that the ancient religions had missed. They excluded entire classes of the population from educational privileges, they sanctioned slavery, they subordinated women, they practiced infanticide, and they encouraged race bigotry and contempt for foreigners. Greeks and Eomans had made some valuable contributions to individualism, but it remained for Jesus of Nazareth to per- fect the doctrine, to give it the sanction of final authority. This, however, is but stating the problem, not solving it. If society is to be redeemed through the redemption of individuals, how, then, is the individual to be redeemed? Through medical inspection and physical training? Through equipment for a trade or a profession? Through cultural processes THE GREAT TEACHER 99 that appeal only to the intellect? Through the accumulation of stores of knowledge? Through the perfection of natural endow- ments that bring fame and fortune to the pos- sessor? Had the Great Teacher gone no deeper into the problem than this, he would not have captured civilization as he did. No ; he laid the ax to the root of the tree. He re- lated man to the unseen; he grasped the full meaning of his spiritual endowment and planned for his uplift through an appeal to his moral and spiritual nature. The indi- vidual recognizing the will of God, and pur- posing to do that will, is already fashioned for his part in promoting the social welfare. In Christ's teachings of the unity of the race and the common fatherhood of God we have our authority for universal education. In Christ's emphasis on. spiritual union with God as the prime factor in the development of the indi- vidual we have our authority for claiming religion as an essential in education. This we hold to be a pedagogical principle so sound that to ignore it is to violate the noblest memories and the richest experiences of the Christian centuries and to repudiate it is to traduce the fame of Him who spake 100 CREED AND CUERICULUM as never man spake. It is only in the appli- cation of the principle that disagreement is thinkable. What, then, is the record of the Christian era? How have the nations of Christendom lapplied the principle, with what results, and what are the excesses to be avoided, and what practice is to be most highly commended? The agreeable task of presenting such facts from the history of education in Christian lands as may serve to indicate the answer and to stir our pure minds by way of remem- brance, may be left for another chapter. In the meantime, evidences are not lacking that the more vital phases of the subject with which w^e are dealing are awakening the keen interest and challenging the attention of leading writers and educators and of thou- sands of intelligent citizens who lay no claim to belong to either of these honored classes. X BEFORE THE REFORMATION Has religion taken a subsidiary place with the advancement of Western civilization? Let us review quickly the educational his- tory of the early Christian centuries. This for better orientation. The success of the early church created the necessity for Christian schools. The followers of Christ as they increased in numbers could not be expected to depend on pagan institu- tions for the instruction of their children and for the guidance of converts. The first schools to be established are designated as catechu- menal, catechetical, and cathedral schools. Naturally, these organizations were religious in purpose, spirit, and accomplishment. Con- verts must be instructed in order to qualify for membership in the church and to acquaint themselves with the Scriptures, the psalmody, and the moral standards of the new faiths — hence catechumenal schools. Some of these must be trained, in turn, for the work of teaching, for the formulating of doctrine, and 101 102 CKEED AND CUERICULUM for polemical leadership. To do this, they must know something of pagan literature and philosophy, as well as of New Testament theology. Hence catechetical schools. Fur- ther, some of these must be set apart for the ministry, drilled in doctrine and ritual and in such general knowledge as would better equip them for public service. Hence cathe- dral schools. Of course these schools were influenced by the Graeco-Roman culture of the age, but they were distinctly religious and took up secular branches only as they were of service in advancing the cause of religion. The same viewpoint may be tolerated in some sectarian schools of to-day, but it is untenable and undesirable in the case of the public school in America. These early educational activities, however, are highly creditable to the cause of religion and are of moment in the history of education. In the first schools of Christendom ethical values were of supreme consideration. Next in order came the monastic schools. Asceticism created the monastery. The mon- asteries developed their own schools. For many centuries they represent the whole educational program in Christian Europe. BEFOEE THE REFORMATION 103 They became the storehouses of learning from which later generations were to draw all their supplies. Monroe states that from the sixth to the sixteenth century the history of monasticism is the history of education. Monastic control was not an unmixed bless- ing. It is dififlcult even now to break away from some of the narrow conceptions and biased opinions of that era of religious con- trol, yet civilization marched along that path- way and it led at last to broader places. To-day, the monastery is an anachronism and the anchorite and cenobite are anomalies. Along the track of the centuries are found the remains of institutions once crowned with power, and it is not meet for us to forget their glory nor to minimize the value of their con- tributions to the cause of progress. The monastery stood first for moral and religious culture. It stood at various times and in many places for other things as well. As centers of intellectual activity and cul- tural pursuits, these institutions became not only fortresses of the faith but the barracks of educational creeds as well. Monastic schools were the only schools in existence. To them, therefore, we trace our knowledge of 104 CREED AND CURRICULUM the arts and sciences of the ancient world. We can do much better to-day, but without the inheritance of results obtained by them we could do almost nothing. Primary studies for the children, secondary and higher educa- tion for their elders were organized on logical principles, and women were offered superior advantages in convents. Here we find the twofold classification of the Seven Liberal Arts into the Trivium, comprising grammar, rhetoric, and logic, and the Quadrivium^ — arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Here manuscripts were copied, libraries col- lected, ancient books preserved, and impor- tant new books produced. Such monasteries as Fulda in Germany, Canterbury in England, lona in Scotland, and Armagh in Ireland were famed through- out Christendom for their achievements in scholarship. Many were the evils and great were the limitations of monastic methods, but even these were recognized and reforms attempted. Charlemagne in Europe and Alfred in England associated their names with eras of improvement and made a begin- ning of popular education under state direc- tion. The Palatine School established at the BEFORE THE REFORMATION 105 court of the empire was Charlemagne's model. Alfred laid the foundation for Oxford Uni- versity. It was the avowed purpose of Charlemagne to advance the interests of the church, and Alfred based his legal system on moral principles as espoused by the church. Thus passed ten centuries of our era, and nowhere is there any attempt to divorce reli- gion from education. Religion needed the services of education for her defense and advancement; education concerned itself with religion even more zealously than with science, literature, and art. The next type of educational discipline was that of chivalry. It furnishes rather a sharp contrast to monasticism. Physical develop- ment was sought for its own sake, and gal- lantry became the popular form of goodness. The young knight was trained in manly sports — hunting, fencing, swimming, riding. Reli- gion was by no means neglected. An impor- tant place was assigned to it in the general educational scheme. The knight was com- pelled to study religion even while he pursued his military training, and was finally inducted into his office by taking solemn vows to defend the church. Chivalry, concerned 106 CREED AND CURRICULUM though it was with temporal things, did not stand for education minus definite religious instruction. Before we consider the period of the Renaissance it may be well to spare a few words to certain other aspects of intellectual development in the period preceding it, item- izing as follows: Scholasticism. Burgher Schools. Guild Schools. Schools of the Saracensi. Universities. Scholasticism has a theological genesis and purpose. Philosophy and logic were seized upon as weapons for the defense of the faith. Scholasticism made for the development of a rational philosophy for the purpose of sub- stantiating the doctrines of the church. It was an intellectual movement under a reli- gious impulse, was guided by able scholars such as Anselm, Peter Lombard, and Thomas Aquinas, and called forth weighty doctrines such as Conceptualism, Nominalism, and Realism. It prepared the way for the Renais- sance. Guild schools arose in response to the BEFORE THE REFORMATION 107 needs of the multiplying artisan classes. Burgher schools had to do especially with economic questions. The former were sup- ported by trade guilds, but they were usually taught by the clergy. Civil authorities finally controlled these schools, and they come nearer to a resemblance of our modern public schools than any of the schools of the Middle Ages. They stood for practical education, but neither practical education nor state con- trol meant the severance of religion and learn- ing. The problems of a democracy among a heterogeneous people are modern and not medieval, and the educators of that day were not facing twentieth century difficulties. Among the Saracens the schools were asso- ciated with the mosques. Far afield as they went into the broader reaches of knowledge; expert as they were in mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy, and medicine, they were marked above all things else by their devotion to Allah and to the teachings of Mohammed, his prophet. All of these influences conspired to produce the university in the twelfth century, inde- pendent alike of church and state, yet afford- ing instruction in both civil law and theology. 108 OEEED AND CUKEICULUM Church and monastic origins can be traced, and while the universities were thoroughly democratized they were under the sway of noted religious leaders and teachers and, in turn, were recognized as a powerful force in religious controversies. So we come to the period of the Renais- sance, that age of phenomenal changes crowning the old order and initiating the new: Feudalism had had its day and ideals of government changed. Columbus crossed the Atlantic and geography was changed. Gunpowder changed methods of warfare; printing changed bookmaking and methods of disseminating knowledge. The telescope changed astronomy, and the mariners' com- pass changed navigation. Education con- ceived new aims. Henceforth there was to be more freedom, more individuality, more personal culture. Medieval methods were found wanting. New attention was given to ancient literature, and to the study of the arts and sciences. Europe experienced an intellectual new birth, a renaissance in all that made for liberal education. It was certainly a testing time for religion as men were emboldened to BEFORE THE REFORMATION 109 renounce what did not fit the new conditions. And how fared religion then? Was it divorced from education or did it maintain itself as an indispensable element in the broadened life of the new age? The question is raised but to indicate the plainness of the answer. Revived interest in the classics embraced fresh studies in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. Among the Italians asceticism gave place to sestheticism, with a moral and religious balance. Dante was a forerunner, and achieved immortality in his Divine Comedy. The leaders of the new age in northern Europe were pious scholars, associated with the religious order, Brothers of the Common Life, an order that served the cause of the common people, spread the principles of pure Christianity, and prepared the way for popular education. Practically all the illustrious educators of the Renaissance received their instruction and inspiration directly or indirectly from that little Dutch town Deventer, where Ger- hard Groot established his order and where Thomas a Kempis wrote his Imitation of Christ. What an interesting array of concrete facts 110 CEEED AND CURRICULUM illustrative of this view could be given did space permit! The revolt from "other-world- liness'' must not be interpreted as the wear- ing away of religious conviction and interest. The moral motive works from core to peri- phery, touching it at different points accord- ing to the direction of the radii along which it moves. We have nowhere claimed in this discussion a uniformity of manifestation for religious sentiment. The religious conscious- ness may account for the self-abnegation of the anchorite in one generation and for the energy of the practical reformer in another. One root feeds many blossoms. In 1475 a tractate on The Liberal Educa- tion, written by one who was later to be ele- vated to the Papacy, declared that the true aim of such education was character, to achieve which man needs intellectual training as well as religious nurturing. The more liberal the education the more readily will it accord religion its proper consideration. The Renaissance broke with many superstitions and discredited many ceremonial practices, but so far from diverting the stream of his- tory from the channel of religious occupation it simply cleared the channel of many obstrue- BEFORE THE REFORMATION 111 tions, accelerated the current, and finally merged itself with the Reformation. The idea of state-supported compulsory education as a duty to the child and safe- guard to the state may be traced to the Re- formation. The reformers were educationists as truly as they were religionists. So for the past four centuries the schools have felt the effects of the impact of their zeal and in Protestant lands have reared their giant superstructures upon their principles. Among Roman Catholics the Counter-Reformation was just as distinctly an educational propa- ganda flowering in the celebrated schools of the Jesuits, the Port Royalists, the Ora- torians, and the Christian Brothers. The logic of the Reformation compels Protestants and Catholics alike to recognize the inter- dependence of church and school and the im- perative claim of religion to consideration as one of the vital components of a liberal educa- tion. Primitive man, pagan man, medieval man, and modern man in the common essence of their human nature exhibit a necessity for religious admonition in order to fit them for life's urgencies and to effect that adjustment 112 CEEED AND CUERICULUM which reveals to greatest advantage the com- posite individual to a composite society. Even democratic America — hand free, mind free, soul free — cannot afford to evade that uni- versal claim in her scheme of state-adminis- tered education. The voice of ages speaks in and through and for each generation as it appears, and it speaks for nothing so dis- tinctly as for the right of the child to know the God of the people. XI WHO LEADS THE WAY? A LIST of educational leaders since the Re- formation, no matter by whom compiled, would look something like this : 1. Martin Luther. 2. Philip Melancthon. 3. Ulrich Zwingli. 4. John Calvin. 5. Michael Neander. 6. Ignatius Loyola. 7. Jean Baptiste de La Salle. 8. Francois Rabelais. 9. John Milton. 10. Michael de Montaigne. 11. Richard Mulcaster. 12. Sir Francis Bacon. 13. Wolfgang Ratich. 14. 'John Amos Comenius. 15. John Locke. 16. Augustus Hermann Francke. 17. Francois Fenelon. 18. Charles Rollin. 113 114 CEEED AND CUERICULUM 19. Jean Jacques Rousseau. 20. Johnson Bernard Basedow. 21. John Henry Pestalozzi. 22. John Frederick Herbart. 23. Friedrich W. A. Froebel. 24. Herbert Spencer. 25. Horace Mann. 26. Henry Barnard. Or was this list selected from the pages of church history? It might have been so with but slight alteration. The names epitomize educational advancement for the last four centuries — ^they give conclusive testimony to the historiacl fact of educational progress under religious leadership. The first five were identified with the Protestant Reformation as preachers or propagandists. The sixth is the illustrious founder of the Jesuits. Had we included the Jansenists, who organized the Port Royal Schools as a protest to Jesuitism, we would have added such names as Saint Cyran, Pascal, and Nicole to that of Fenelon. La Salle was the founder of the Christian Brothers Schools^ — a priest and a religious enthusiast. Rabelais was a monk, Milton a Puritan, Comenius a pastor, Francke a Pietist WHO LEADS THE WAY? 115 and pastor, who taught piety as the essential basis of education. Fenelon was a priest at twenty-four, and Rollin a learned theologian. Rousseau is in a class of his own, but his scheme of education provided for religion and morals. Basedow was trained for the Lu- theran ministry. Pestalozzi was minister and lawyer. It may be said without danger of contra- diction that no one of these eminent men advanced a theory of education that elimi- nated the religious element as a fundamental. Nor do our current theories require any such elimination. Our problem, as has already been shown, is a circumstantial or pruden- tial one, our polyglot population producing the perplexity of an apparent discrepancy between our educational ideals and our con- stitutional principle. We have yet to learn how to accommodate the ideal to the consti- tution with justice to all parties. Religious homogeneity would probably result in the harmonious religionizing of our schools — perhaps to an extreme. Here we are then between the Scylla of sectarianism on the one hand and the Cha- rybdis of nonreligion on the other — either 116 CREED AND CURRICULUM rock may sink the ship. Experienced pilots are needed to guide our destinies safely into the open sea of progress. It can be done ! The writer has interviewed many well-known educators, editors, minis- ters, and public-spirited citizens on this ques- tion, and almost invariably the opinion has been given that definite religious instruction in the public schools is eminently desirable but practically impossible. It is probably true that this opinion prevails very largely among those best acquainted with the situa- tion and who therefore realize most clearly the difficulties to be overcome. Shall we then rest the case at this point? Is it the habit of the American people to abandon just causes because the solution of the problems they represent does not seem to be within reach? Has sufficient thought been given to this ques- tion, and has every possible effort been made to achieve the desired results? The crisis rushes on! It might at least be possible to conceive of a series of acceptable text-books and supple- mentary readers adapted to various grades dealing with the following subjects under appropriate titles: WHO LEADS THE WAY? 117 1. Belief in an unseen God as a fact in human history. 2. Eational grounds for the acceptance of a belief in God. 3. Personal obligations and social benefits arising from this belief. This will outline a general course in Eeli- gion, Ethics, Morals, Behavior, Character, Conduct, or whatever other words may be chosen to fit the case. Such a course without offending any particular race or creed would deal with the fundamentals of individual happiness, racial progress, social recon- struction, and human uplift. The contents of the course would harmonize with and in many ways supplement what is presented in the departments of history, psychology, philoso- phy, and literature. It would also illustrate many facts connected with the study of the arts and sciences, and would round out the curriculum in a manner somewhat consonant with our pedagogical ideals. It might be pos- sible thus to train a generation away from the misconception of religion as a matter of the Sunday schools, to be neglected or sub- ordinated on six days of the week, and toward the proper conception of religion as a mighty 118 CEEED AND CUERICULUM ever-operating factor in that superb process of which the schools are the exponents — the preparation of the individual for his supreme mission upon earth, namely, the construction of a noble character expressing itself in terms of a useful life. The field is a broad one. How much, for instance, may be included under the first gen- eral subject! — belief in God as a fac/t in his- tory. The world's best literature is full to over- flowing with the evidence. The customs of primitive peoples, the laws of modern nations, the testimony of illustrious men and women of all ages may be cited. The songs of all the nations, immortal paintings, crowning archi- tectural splendors of temples, cathedrals, shrines and altars, habits of prayer, historic pilgrimages, holy wars, records of inspiring deeds of devotion and sacrifice, even banish- ments and martyrdoms, and, above all, the accomplishments and lasting achievements of the world's great workers and thinkers trace- able directly or indirectly to religious incen- tives or demonstrating the strength of their faith in the unseen God— how practically in- exhaustible and immeasurable is the wealth WHO LEADS THE WAY? 119 of material! And how absorbingly interest- ing the story could be made if skillfully handled! Industrial readers, nature stories, classical tales, and science primers have noth- ing to offer more instructive and inspiring. A presentation of the reasons why men have and why men do believe in the Supreme Being, with illustrative stories and impres- sive incidents, would carry the work still deeper into the individual consciousness, re- membering always the need of adaptation to grade. Having popularized the subject still fur- ther by showing the benefits unconditionally shared by all members of society through the benign influences of religious customs and in- stitutions, it would be a very natural conclu- sion to the course to insist on the recognition of reciprocal responsibilities and to outline the advantages of meeting these sacred obli- gations. Keligion as a central fact in history, as a means of larger liberty and greater happiness, is the common platform of all be- lievers, and there must be possible some method of teaching it in public schools with- out furnishing occasion for sectarian opposi- tion. Who, then, will lead the way? iiiiiiiiiaioiiiiiili LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 029 445 947 9