THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

White Ribbon, Volume 24, Issue 285, 18 March 1919, Page 11

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

(l*o tilt' Editor.) Sir, In tin* last number of tin* Dan u||i> -‘Normal Instructor,” New York, which one of the leading State school teachers’ journals in America, the following - extiact appears: “In nearly every part of the Broad British Empire provision is made in tln* official syllabus issued by the varinu> cdu< ational departments for the children to learn in school hours lh<*4 Tm Commandments. Many of theState* School authorities encourage lh« displacing of the laws on the walls the school rooms. Our attention is called to this by a circular sent from Wellington, New Zealand, sent cut by the “Decalogue Committee,” urging that the laws of that State be made conformable with those of other parts of the Empire, and provision be made for the* repetition or memorising of these in the school. They urge that ‘a knowledge: of these laws is in the interests of character building and good c itizenship, and is also an aid to good government.’ ” As the children in the State Schools of New Zealand are not taught thp Ten Commandments, which are the foundation of our British laws, I beg to suggest that parents and school comnutters nt once petition their own nn-mbeis of Parliament (and also can didatv s for the same) to urge that the (ioveinment Printer be instructed to mint anil supply free to all State S< hool Committees sufficient copies of ♦he Ten Commandments for each of the class ri oms. with a recommendation that t lev be learned by the s< ’tolars. —I am. vours trulv, A NEW ZEALANDER. P.S.— Nearly all New Zealand Edu i.itjon Boards allow School Committees to display the Ten Commandment • harts, but unfortunately these charts are unprocurable in New Zealand. Ihe National W.C.T.U. of America instructs all Unions to get the Ten Commandments into the State Schools in \merira, as Jew, Protestartt. and Catholic are agreed upon tin* lon Commandments.