CATHOLIC EDUCATION

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2484, 24 April 1909, Page 7

CATHOLIC EDUCATION

To Catholics education, of its nature, necessarily implies the development of the child's whole nature —physical, intellectual, moral, religious. It implies something more than mere secular instruction (such as reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, etc.), for these are not education —they are at best the mere communication of worldly knowledge or of the means of acquiring knowledge. No - amount of mere instruction constitutes education, apart from the moulding and training ■ of the heart and will and moral conscience of the child, and, apart from reference to its true nature and destiny. ■ We have already pointed out the essentially, dogmatic and narrow denominational character of the system of hard secularism which legally holds sway in our public school system, and which Lavishes religion as if it were a foul and •evil thing—as if religion and the State were enemies to each other; we have .shown how those parents who accept this form of secularism are 'rewarded with the free instruction of their children; and, on the other hand, how those who cannot in conscience accept it must either smother their conscientious convictions in return f-or the valued boon of such free instruction or (as an alternative) pay a double and continuing tax or fine—one for the education which they cannot in conscience accept, the other for the education which they can.—“New Zealand Tablet.”