A Significant Story

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXII, Issue 46, 17 November 1904, Page 18

A Significant Story

Under the heading of ' Our Pagan Children » a leaderwriter m this week's ' Outlook ' declares that the following statement was made to him in writing by a wellknown teacher in one of the largest public schools :—

'Ihe school6books arc full o f references: to the Scriptures, but the children know nothing about these references. The other day the' lesson was a poem upon Christmas. 1 asked the children why Christmas was held as a holiday. Out of my class of 70, of the average age ot nine years, two girls had a very hazy notion ot t/he matter, arid o ne boy only ,had the information. He was older than the rest in the class, and had come from a Roman Catholic school. The poem referred to the various incidents of the birth of Christ to the watch of the shepherds and the song of the angels Not one of the class knew anything about these matters. 1 I asked them if they ever went to Sunday School, and they looked foolish. A few days ago the lesson spoke of the Dead Sea. Not one of the children knew anything of Ihe history of the Dead Sea, of the destruction of the Cities of the Plain, of Sodom and Gomorrah, or of the patriarch Lot. If any teachers refuse to admit that these are the ordinary experience of a public school teacher, they are not honest. The story is significant as snowing the almost utterly pagan condition in which non-Catholic children in the public schools are growing up, and Catholic parents who may occasionally feel weary of the heavy and unjust burden they have to bear may realise that the efforts and sacrifices they are making are by no means made in vain. , „.-iv<i