SCHOOLS
561
SCHOOLS
cation of the young to insure their growing up in the
faith", and expressed the hope that the graduates of
the newly-founded College of Georgetown would, on
returning to their homes, be able "to instruct and
guide others in local schools". Thus the plan of or-
ganizing separate Cathohc schools was inaugurated.
The First Plenary Council of Baltimore (1829) de-
clares: "We judge it absolutely necessary that schools
should be established, in which the young may be
taught the principles of faith and morality, while be-
ing instructed in letters" ("Decreta", n. 33). The
Second Council (1832) renewed this enactment and
entered into the details of organization (see "De-
creta", n. 38). The Third Plenary Council of Balti-
more (1884) devoted very careful consideration to the
subject of elementary schools and decreed in explicit
terms the obhgation of establishing a parochial school
in every parish within two years of the promulgation
of the decree, except where the bishop, on account of
serious difficulties in the way {ob grnviores dijficul-
tates) judges that a delay may be granted ("Acta et
Decreta", 199, no. 1).
IX. Parochial Schools and Public Schools. — The establishment and maintenance of parochial schools does not imply the condemnation of public scihools, or opposition of any kind to the i)urpose for which these are established. At a meeting of tlie National Educa- tional A.ssociation at Nashville, Tennessee in July, 1889, both Cardinal Gibbons, Archbishop of Balti- more, and Archbishop Keane, then rector of tlie Cath- ohc University of America, stated the case in favour of denominational schools, and made it (^lear that, .so far as citizensliip and i)atriotisiii are con(-erned, the Cath- olic schools are aiming su(;eessfully at the same ideals as the public schools. Since that time the calumny has been repeated that parochial schools lead to sec- tionalism, and are opposed to national patriotism. Catholics can only answer that this is not true, and point to facts to justify their reply. Our schools teach everything that is taught in the public schools, and, in addition, teach reUgion and religious morality. The exclusion of religion from the public schools is, we think, historically, the result of sectarian division and sectarian prejudice. In recent times theorists have sought to justify the omission on pedagogical grounds, and have suggested various .substitutes for religion as a basis of morality. We criticize the theories, and point to the educational results in justification of our contention. If the exclusion of religion and the sub- stitution for it of inadequate and futile moral educa- tion lead to disastrous results, the Catholics who call attention to those conditions, far from opposing the public school system, are really doing it a service. Meantime they feel that the tendency in the educa- tional policy of the public school .system is more and more towards secularization. In the matter of morality they feel that experiments more and more dangerous are being tried in the public schools, and if they pro- test, they are doing what, after all, they have a right, as taxpayers, to do. Meantime also they are develop- ing their own system of education without giving up the contention that, in justice, they have a right to compensation for the secular education and the edu- cation in citizenship which they give in their schools.
Conflicts between the educational authority of the State and the Catholic clergy have arisen in a few instances. The clergy have always recognized the right of officials of the Department of Health, etc., to interfere in the matters in which they have compe- tence. Where they have retained full autonomy, and have not yielded for the sake of affiiliation or some other form of recognition, they have naturally avoided all friction with State educational authority. By way of exception, we have the celebrated Ohio Com- pulsory Education case, in which Father Patrick F. Quigley, of Toledo, Ohio, resisted unsuccessfully the enactment of the State of Ohio (1890) compelling all XIII.— 36
principals and teachers in all schools to make quar-
terly reports to State officers. The still more famous
Wisconsin Bible Case involved the question of the
right of the District Board of Edgerton, Wisconsin, to
have the King James Version of the Bible read in
the public schools which were attended by Catholic
pupils. The Supreme Court of Wisconsin decided in
favour of the Catholics.
X. Principles embodied in the Parochial Schools. — The sacrifice which Catholics are making in maintain- ing their system of primary schools is justified, in their estimation, by the following principles: (1) The spirit- ual interests of the child, while not exclusive of others, such as learning, health, skill, ability to make a living, etc., are supreme. Where there is danger of wrecking the soul of a Catholic child no consideration of econ- omy has weight. (2) Next to religion, morahty is the most important matter in the hfe of a child. Catho- lics maintain that morality is best taught when based on religion. Catholic educational theorists, especially, are convinced that the immature mind of the child cannot grasp principles of morality except they be presented by way of religious authority and re- hgious feefing. (3) Considering the nature of the child-mind, the whole curriculum of the school is best presented when it is organized and unified, not frag- mented and disconnected. Religion, appealing as it does to the heart as well as to the head, offers the best principle of mental and spiritual unification and or- ganization. The exclusion of religion from the schools is a pedagogical mistake. (4) Although condemned by .secularizing educationalists and sectarian enthu- siasts as un-American and opposed to our national in- stitutions, our schools seem to us to be second to none in national usefulness and effectiveness. They teach patriotism, and the results show that they teach it successfully. They teach morality, and the lives of the Catholic people of the country show the result. They teach religion, thus constituting, in an age that questions everything, a great institutional force on the side of belief in God, in religious obligation, and in definite moral responsibility. Besides, they strive, with great personal sacrifice on the part of people, teachers, and pupils, to keep up with the public school system in teaching the secular branches. They are as a rule the equals, and often the superiors, of the public schools in the quahty of the secular instruction which they give. Thej' have the advantage of disci- pline, uniformity of ideals, harmony of methods, and, above all, of disinterested devotedness on the part of their teachers. Finally, the fact should not be over- looked that the parochial schools save many millions of dollars annually to the non-Catholic public, who, if the Catholic children were not provided for in paro- chial schools, would be obliged to increase very con- siderably the annual cost of education.
XI. Organization and Statistics. — The parochial school system is diocesan in its organization. The su- preme educational authority is the bishop, who gov- erns and administers the schools of his diocese through the assistance of a school board and, very often, a dio- cesan (clerical) inspector of schools. The immediate authority is vested in the pastor, whose task it is to provide building, salaries, etc. The teachers are almost universally religious. The principal of the school is appointed usually by the religious comniu- nity to which he or she belongs. The great majority of the schools are mixed, that is, schools for boys and girls. The only exceptions, apparently, are those in which the boys are taught by brothers and the girls by sisters. There is no recognized national central au- thority in Catholic educational matters. However, the parochial school section of the Catholic Educa- tional Association has already done much towards uni- fying and systematizing our parochial schools. The training of teachers is, as a rule, provided for by the different religious communities engaged in the work of
