BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 19461, 7 November 1928, Page 14

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS.

TO THB EDITOR 01 TUB PBIS3. gj Fj —I think most people would like to see our schools opening with a short Bible reading, a hymn, and a short prayer, say Our Lord's Prayer. Such an opening could and should be conducted for the great majority of the year in the open air. But for any religious exercise to be of any value it must be conducted by a person who derives actual pleasure from it. To hand such a privilege over to school teachers as a part of their job appears to me as an act of sacrilege. In schools where the masters are clergymen it is natural that the religious exercises should be conducted by tliem L and since originally all schools were conducted by the clergy it is quite natural that religious instruction has gradually come to bo looked upon as a part of an ordinary teacher's duties. But in a country like New Zealand, where religious instruction has been excluded from most of our schools for many years, the very advocating of Bible reading conducted by school teachers indicates, to my mind, an appalling lack of respect for religion in the supporters of such a movement. Is religion really below cooking, woodwork, and every other school subject and can therefore be taught by anyone, or is it simply that religion is in such a rotten state in New Zealand that it would be impossible to find one suitable person to open each school in the country. Surely the proper course is to get the school syllabus altered so as to allow every school to be opened with Bible reading, etc., and then to see that a suitable person is found to conduct the opening, as if no such person can be found for any school then surely that school had better remain as it is.— Yours, etc.,