Moral Instruction in Public Schools
By Editor
It appears that the question of teaching morals in the public schools has recently been agitated in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was in this very city that the famous case of John D. Miner et al., vs. the Board of Education, was brought before the courts, resulting in the decision of the Supreme Court of the State sustaining the Board of Education in their decision that there should be no religious teaching or exercises in the schools under their care. In the recent agitation we learn that protests were presented to the Board of Education by a representative of the Jews, a representative of the non-religious element, and by the local pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church. The frequent instances of a tendency for a union of church and state and for a state-taught and state-enforced religion are like straws on the surface, indicating the direction of the current at this time. Full advantage should be taken of every opportunity thus afforded to present right principles to the people. By special request we have recently forwarded to a gentleman in Corsicana, Tex., copies of the REVIEW containing the full report of the campaign for and against the movement for the introduction of religious instruction into the public schools of this city. We have no special information as to the circumstances leading to this request, but judge that there may be a similar movement in this Southern city. The promoters of this movement announced that an influence in favor of religious teaching in public schools might go forth from this city to other parts of the country, and it appears that the efforts to educate the people concerning right principles may also have a wide influence.