FADDISTS IN SCHOOLS.

Observer, Volume XXX, Issue 38, 4 June 1910, Page 3

FADDISTS IN SCHOOLS.

The Menace Grows Greater.

THE Education Board adopted a weak and spineless attitude, in deferring for a fortnight the question as to whether the request of the : Salvation Army, to give lectures in the public schools on the evils of gambling, should be granted or not. The request was one that should have-been "turned down" without thie slightest hesitation. By deferring it, the Board,' or a majority thereof, has shown a characteristic spirit of indecision 'that certainly will not appeal pleasantly to the parents oF children attending the schools under the Board's administration.

It is right and proper, no doubt, that children should be taught temperance and moderation in all such things, but that is a matter for the parents to inculcate. It is scarcely likely that the average parent desires his children to grow up into puritanical prigs and milksops, but that is what would probably happen if they were deluged with the oratory of such, an organisation as the Anti-Smoking and Anti-Gambling League of the Salvation Army. Nor do many parents—except those who have been brought up m extremely narrow school — object to either smoking or gambling in moderation—and moderation is the truest form of temperance.

It is high time that the Minister for Education took a hand in connection with these continual and unwarrantable attempts of all kinds ot oranks and faddists to force an entry into our public schools. If they are so frantically anxious to expound their gloomy and ascetic creeds, let them go outside the schools. As a matter of fact, if the local Education Board granted the Salvation permission io invade, it would, on the face of it, be an infringement of the Education Act, which that, our educational system shall be secular and in accordance with the syllabus. We see no mention of anti-. smoking and anti-gambling lectures in the syllabus, and hope that we never shall. ■ .

Besides, as we pointed out in a previous article, the average Salvation Army officer or private is not the type of individual whom the average parent would care to employ as a preceptor of his offspring. These people are rarely well educated ; their doctrine is a narrow one ; and their puritanism is of the most rigid type. In fact, if the. Salvation Army is admitted into our schools, we see a busy time ahead of the truant officer ; »iid small wonder, either. However, we trust that at its next meeting the Board of Education will be firm enough to throw out the Salvation Army's request without any further discussion.