Anti-National Education, or the Spirit of the Sectarianism Morally Tested by Means of Certain Speeches and Letters from the Member for Kilmarnock; With an Appendix (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1837. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... have put to me, will appear unsatisfactory to you, the impression which I gather from your letter you have drawn from the newspaper report, that I have misstated your opinions on education. I shall endeavour, therefore, in a short compass, to condense the view which I gaveof your opinions and my objection to them. The education which, as I read your evidence before the Committee of 1835, from p. 182 to p. 296, you seem to me to recommend as a national system of education, and the uses of which you enforce with great ability, is one which you designate as "secular" and not "sectarian." I. In p. 231, you explain what you mean by a "secular" education, where you say, that "the teachers of the elementary schools it is proposed shall be secular teachers and no more. As shall be afterwards stated, they should not be required to teach revealed religion, but more, they should not be permitted, and it should be cause of removal that they interfere to inculcate, however indirectly, either religious or anti-religious views. The department of revealed religion must be committed to more competent hands. Hence the religious opinions of the secular teacher, cannot in either way affect his pupils." You contrast this with the system now in use in Scotland, pp. 189-197, viz., the system of our parish schools, which you hope to see done away with, and a better system, that of Prussia or France, substituted for it; and in answer to the question, p. 234, whether the people might not become divided in opinion as to the value of the national schools, and some might prefer schools taught by am evangelical schoolmaster, to those in which no religion is taught, you answer, "that such feelings of dissent and distrust would, in the course of time, very much diminish, as people got more enl...