THE BIBLE

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7018, 5 January 1910, Page 7

THE BIBLE

ITS PLACE IN THE SCHOOL. EDUCATIONAL UNBTTTUTE'S PRESIDENT'S VIEW. A NECESSARY FEATURE. Summing up Lis ideals of education, ■ the president of the New Zealand ' Educational Institute (Mr G. W. C„ , Macdonald), addressing the annual con-' fcrenoe yesterday, urged that the Bible should hare a place in the primary school curriculum. He would teach the children to read intelligently, eo’ that the acquirement of knowledge mayr be open to them; train them in obser-' ration and the drawing of conclusions;! in experiment and the correct recording of results. Singing should bo taught as a relief from ordinary work, and the hand and eye should be trained by' means of manual work. The most im-1 portant part of education, moral training, could be regarded only with foreboding. Tire ultimate sanction behind all school morality seemed to be the teachers' cane or the policeman’s birch.' “In all our educational work, thel ideals,” continued the president, “should he the highest and the best, yet we have practically debarred from our primary schools the Book which inculcates the highest and purest type of, morality, which administers the' oath, the main foundation of the purity of our courts of justice, and wnioh sup- 1 plies the language which permeates the whole of our literature. The moral lawl ‘Do to ethers as you would like others! to do to you’ we may find before long interpreted in the words of David 1 Harum : ‘Do to the other fellow as the) other follow would do to you, and do' it first.’- The fate of. France after the, revolution proves that nothing but' disaster awaits 'a nation without a belief. 1 It we wish our children to have more iron in the blood of their principles' we must present before them the high-: ! est, purest and best moral examples.' I In this new country far removed frond : the larger centres of population, and' ; untrammelled by the traditions and ab- : surd class distinctions of older lands,' ; ive have a splendid opportunity to work j out our own destiny on lines that should I make for national uplifting and national ' greatness. Let ns, as teachers, see to ! it that wo do what we can towards this, ; national uplift, and let us fearlessly ; raise our voices 'against anything that I we think would tend to mar our noj tioual ideal. In conclusion, I would quote from Professor Mehaffy: ‘Tire I modern democratic ideal of education I which regards on!J" the development of, 'the intellect, exemplifies the same kind jof mistake as the mediaeval ideal of, I asceticism.’ "