BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22544, 8 October 1936, Page 17

BIBLE IN SCHOOLS

NEED OF TEACHING APPEAL BY HEADMISTRESS FAILURE OF PARENTS "The backbone of opposition to the movement for the introduction of religious exercises into the primary schools lias already gone, and their introduction can only be a matter of time," said Miss E. R. Edwards, principal of the Diocesan High School, in the course of an address to n meeting of women in the Lewis Eady Hall yesterday afternoon. Miss Ellen Melville, president of the "Women's Committee' of the Auckland Bible in Schools League, who presided, said the time was now opportune for raising the question of a referendum on the subject. Miss Edwards said it was a lamentable fact that New Zealand was living on its spiritual capital with very little fresh inspiration. It had been definitely proved that an elementary knowledge of Christian teaching could not be assumed to. exist in New Zealand.- Euglish booklets presupposed a foundation that did not exist here, and much more elementary literature was required. Parents were themselves tko fruit of a secular education and the majority consequently neither knew nor cared enough to undertake the religious education of their children. Many distrusted their own powers, ia many cases wrongly so, and there was a tendency to leave all training, including that of religion, to the school. Dangers o! Delay Religious teaching was the responsibility of all Christians and the medium for that as for all other education was the school. There was a growing recognition by Christians of the big highest common factor shared by all the Churches. Unfortunately the present Government had apparently tied its hands in the matter and the delay meant a permanent loss to most of the present generation of little children, and like their parents they would grow up almost completely ignorant of Christian teaching and the literature of'the Bible. The exclusion of theology from the university was almost as bad as the exclusion of prayers and Scripture teaching from the school children.

Three hundred boys from primary schools admitted to Waitaki had begun attending school prayers and there was not a word of protest, said Miss Edwards. The same thing happened at Whangarei. If the heads of secondary schools found no insuperable obstacles in the way of daily prayers why ever should such be expected in the case of heads of primary schools? The Bible was more than literature. It was a basis of moral teaching. It was more than that. The headmaster of Repton had said: "There is all the difference in the world between the ethical and the religious attitude." Moral Standards The moral standards of to-day, even of our children, were very badly wrong, said Miss Edwards. Wo needed Bible study to get a right attitude toward God and a guide to life. Primary school children wore at an age to appreciate the Bible, and to postpone a knowledge of it meant often to lose it altogether. The Rev. J. A. Thomson, of St. Luke's Presbyterian Church, said every section of the community agreed that character building was the essence of education. The Bible, which gave authoritative standards, was a moral force moulding the characters of men and women, and a power capable of bringing fellowship with God. It provided sanctions that appealed to and guided our consciences. The Re,v. E. 0. Blamires, organising secretary of the league, spoke of encouraging progress in the work of the league.