STATE SCHOOLS by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Sep 30, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 38.

STATE SCHOOLS.

By Editor

A. M. CHADWICK, in the California Prohibitionist of August 15, thinks that "our educational system is in danger from the special training mania which has taken possession of it." And in this we fully agree with Mr. C. His thoughtful article is commendatory. It does not advise, as do so many, religious instruction in public schools in order to make good citizens, and thus develop "a law-respecting and law-obeying spirit." His claim is that civil government should be taught, which should include "the fundamental principles of government—rights and duties, wrongs and remedies, personal and social, with their mutual relations

and reactions, and the relation of government to their exercise and adjustment." And this education he holds should be compulsory and preparatory to the exercise of the franchise.

There is more genuine national reform in Mr. C.'s article than in all that National Reformers have ever advocated. And a government founded on the basis of citizenship advocated by Mr. C. would be a thousand times safer and more Christian than the religio-political government advocated by National Reformers. In the absence of all mention, we conclude that Mr. Chadwick clearly comprehends what is so difficult for many to comprehend, that religious instruction belongs alone to the home and the church.