Religious Education in the United States

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 14, 12 April 1923, Page 11

Religious Education in the United States

(By James A." Ryan, D.D., in America.)

A survey has been made recently of religious education in the United States, and the results are given in the Report of the Committee on Education of the International Sunday School Council of Religious Education. Accordingto this report "Nineteen out of every twenty Jewish children under twenty-five years of age receive no formal religious instruction. Three out of every four Catholic children under twenty-five years of age receive no formal religious instruction. Two out of every three Protestant children under twenty-five years of age receive no formal religious instruction. Or, taking the country as a whole, seven, out of every ten children and youth of the United States under twenty-five years of age are not being touched in any way by the educational programme of any church."

So startling are these-figures that the author of this report hastens to conclude:

“How long may a nation endure, seven out of ten of whose children and youth receive no systematic instruction in the religious and moral sanctions upon which its democratic institutions rest? This question becomes more acute when we learn how few hours of instruction are available annually for those children who are enrolled in religious schools.”

These figures, if exact, are indeed startling. They reveal an amount of spiritual ignorance many times greater than the illiteracy under which we are groaning. I do not question their accuracy with reference to the Protestant churches. That there are “over 27,000,000' Americanchildren and youth, nominally Protestant, who receive no formal or systematic religious instruction” is probably not an under-statement of a fact. The statement, however, where Jewish and Catholic children are concerned does not possess the same degree of accuracy. A fresh examination of all the data available has been made! In the light of this new and more exact information, it can safely be asserted that the report in question errs, and errs greatly, in its statement concerning the religious ignorance of both Jewish and Catholic children.

According to this report “nineteen out of every twenty Jewish children under twenty-five . receive no religious

training.” < The following table, based on the JewishAmerican Year Book, 1920, shows that 10 per cent, of the Jewish children in the United States are actually in attendance at Jewish schools:

Total number Jewish Children Jewish Schools Jewish Children of Jews Jewish Children in Percentage of in U.S. ,5-13 .5-13 in Jewish Schools 3,300,000 359.370 48,534 14 per cent These figures, however, are very misleading as they take no account of the many children who had attended Jewish schools for a year or two previous to the year in which the report was made, nor of the great number of Jewish boys who receive private instruction. According to Dr. Dushkin in /Jewish Education in New York City, almost 75 per cent, of Jewish children receive a religious training: '

“Since the average pupil stays in the Jewish school system about three years, it is estimated that about 125,000 of the Jewish children now of school age (1918) have received or will, at some time or other, receive Jewish instruction. In other words, almost one-half (45 per cent.) of all the Jewish children of school age receive Jewish instruction at some period. This instruction lasts about three years and the training given is equivalent to the work of the first two grades in the Jewish school.”

What is true of New York City is probably true of other cities as well, according to Jewish authorities. Dr. Dushkin believes that “as many as three-fourths of the Jewish boys between the ages of six and fourteen, and two-fifths of the girls of the same ages are receiving religious education.”

It is quite as inaccurate to state that “three out of every four Catholic children under twenty-five years of age receive no formal religious instruction.” According to the latest United States census (1920) there were 105,710,620 inhabitants in the United States. Of this number, 17,885,646 were Catholics (Official Catholic Directory, 1921). The number of Catholic children between the ages of five and-thirteen years was 3,380,388; that is, 18.9 per cent, of the total Catholic population. Of this 18.9 per cent, there were 1,795,673 (Ryan Director of Catholic Colleges and Schools) or 53 per cent, attending Catholic elementary schools. The following statistics make clear the information stated above: population of United States. 105,710,620; Catholic population of United States, 17,885,646; Catholic children, 5-13, 3,380,388; Catholic children in Catholic schools, 1,795,673; percentage of Catholic children in Catholic schools, 53 per cent.; percentage not in Catholic schools, 47 per cent.

In 1920, 47 per cent, of the Catholic children between the ages of five and thirteen did not attend parish schools. This does not mean, however, that 47 per cent, of our Catholic children had received no formal religious training. It is a well known fact that the number of children who fail to attend" the parish school after the fifth grade is very large. Statistics as to parish school, mortality at the present time for the United States as a whole are under preparation. Figures which have been compiled from data furnished by twelve dioceses, which are more or less typical, indicate that the percentage of children who fail to stay in the Catholic school after the sixth grade is as high as 26 per cent. 468,358 children, therefore, yearly leave the Catholic school between the fifth and eighth grades, but the majority of these children have received at least five years of religious education. This is not ideal, but it is sufficient to falsify the statement under review. -

Every Catholic church, moreover, maintains a Sunday school and First Communion classes where religious in-

struction is given to all children who do not attend the parish school. This is particularly true of most rural churches where the pastor, or catechist, gives at least an hour weekly the year round to the teaching of religion and to the preparation of* children for the reception of the Sacraments. Some dioceses, like Pittsburgh, have well organised Confraternities of Christian Doctrine, the mem-

bers of which teach religion every Sunday .in out-of-the-way missions or to .groups of children riot .reached by the parish school or the organised Sunday school. - Last year in the diocese of*Pittsburgh, 804, lay teachers were engaged in the work of instructing 20,873 children. Practically every child, whether' urban or rural, whose parents are

faithful receives religious instruction. The only children

whom we are not reaching, to any .considerable extent, are the children of the new immigration. • If all these facts are taken into consideration it is probably true that almost!'9o per cent., and at least 80 per cent., of the Catholic children between the ages of five and thirteen receive formal religious training. We are not, of course, satisfied with the inadequate amount of rime devoted. to religion by those who attend Sunday school only. We view with alarm the fact that over 400,000 children yearly leave our schools at a time when religious education and religious training are most necessary if they are to bear fruit in their future lives. But this is no justification for saying that three out of every four Catholic children are religious illiterates. It would be much closer to the truth to assert that three out of every four have received formal religious education through a long period

of years. Another fact which must not be lost sight of is 'hat

of the 200,000 students of Catholic colleges and high schools, many have not attended parish school previously and receive, therefore, religious instruction in the higher educational institutions. Of the 40,000 Catholic men and women

who attend . State universities or non-Catholic colleges, thousands are regularly instructed in religion by means of courses offered at the Catholic Educational Foundations and Newman Clubs. These college and high school students decrease considerably the percentage of religious illiterates,

as far as Catholic youth is concerned. The following table of four dioceses, selected because they are representative of conditions in different types of Catholic communities the country over, confirms the belief

that as high as 75 per cent, of our children between the ages of five and thirteen receive religious education “ither in the parish or the Sunday school.

It is not our purpose in questioning the accuracy (if the figures which the International Sunday School Council presents to minimise in the slightest the menace to public morality, upright citizenship and democracy itself, which an American manhood and" womanhood, not trained to the acceptance of religious beliefs, constitute. Leading educators, statesmen and thinkers have called public attention again and again to this weakness in our educational system. Catholics see their duty clearly in this respect. Not only must the parish school be maintained and developed, but an opportunity must be given to. every Catholic child to be educated in the Catholic school. "Every Catholic child in a Catholic school." Catholics view with satisfaction the increasing public interest in the necessity and value of religious training for all. But it is open to question whether the means advocated by the International Sunday School Committee for remedying an admittedly bad situation are practicable. The above cited report "urges upon public school authorities the recognition of their obligations: (1) To rearrange public school schedules and build school programmes in sympathetic co-operation with religious schools of all faiths; (2) To grant, under approved safeguards, suitable academic credit to students carrying approved courses under church auspices; (3) To provide optional courses in ethical and social training for students not enrolled in week-day schools of religion." ' Public education has become so thoroughly and completely secularised in the -United States during the past fifty years that any return to the-ofd religious allegiances is now almost beyond possibility. The public school will remain secular in spite of all efforts, no matter how powerful to inject into it a religious atmosphere, much less to make. of it a medium for religious ; training. The Protestant churches, it is our conviction, will have to turn iv another direction if they ever hope to solve a problem which if to a great extent of their: own making." v 'v•:-";. ■■

Catholic Percentage of Catholic Children in Cath. Children — Catholic Catholic Children Children Calh. Schools Cath. Schools in Cath. in Cath. Population 5-13. 5-13 Schools 217.350 145,470 67 per cent 56,762 46,365 82 per cent 134,835 98,586 73 per cent Saint Louis 80,456 39,264 49 per cent Totals**** 2,589,436 489,403 329,685 68 per cent