Religious Instruction in Public Schools
In response to a letter enclosing a copy of our leaflet “Religion in the Public Schools,” Mrs. H. K. Schoff, president of the National Congress of Mothers, wrote to Miss Fannie M. Dickerson, editor of the Youth’s Instructor, a letter from which we make the following extract:— “The National Congress of Mothers is an absolutely non-sectarian body. Its work is so broad that it includes women of every sect. I am sure that it is not the purpose of any of its leaders to put into the public schools religious instruction. Unfortunately, as I think, a resolution to further the introduction of the Bible into the public schools was passed. I think that moral instruction would have been the term to use. Honesty, truthfulness, unselfishness, and qualities of this kind are desired by every one, and simple training in moral qualities can not be objected to. In a country which includes people of so many ideals, it would be impossible to introduce religious instruction in the public schools, and I am very sure that I voice the sentiment of the officers, in saying that there will be no effort on the part of the National Congress of Mothers to introduce any code of instruction which would not receive the sanction of all creeds.”