# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1880 11 15_S170
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

170

...let their children attend the public schools only very rarely. Only too often these are completely undisciplined. The right and highest means of Christian discipline, the Word of God, is entirely banished from them. The means used instead as discipline are mostly quite wrong. Everything is calculated to spur on the children's ambition, so that this becomes the chief driving force of all their actions. In a word: not a trace of Christian discipline and upbringing is to be found in the public schools; for no reasonable person will claim of them that they are Christian institutions of education. Let someone praise them as highly as he likes, at most he will be able to claim of them that they are institutions of instruction in which the children are taught all sorts of useful knowledge. But are these institutions for children who still need Christian upbringing? And are such schools supposed to be able to replace our Lutheran parish schools for us? Never!

P. You claimed a moment ago that our public schools are irreligious schools. But that is not so. It often happens that prayer is offered in them, such as the holy Lord's Prayer and other prayers. The schoolbooks, too, often contain things that concern religion. I ask you plainly: can you deny that? And if you cannot deny it, how can you then call the public schools irreligious schools?

H. Your examples are not to be disputed. But that does not refute my claim when I say that our public schools are, on principle, irreligious schools. Where and when this is otherwise, that is an exception to the rule. And there is also the saying: "Where there is no plaintiff, there is no judge." I know well that the matter is as you say, but that only makes it worse, except in the case where simply the Lord's Prayer is spoken; for the religion taught in the public schools is, almost without exception, a false religion. It is in fact the religion of the ancient Pharisees, by which man is confirmed in the pride of his own virtue and in his self-righteousness. A Savior and Redeemer is indeed mentioned in the schoolbooks, but not in the sense that he is truly our Savior, but only as a leader and guide. It is the religion of the Turks; for although God is spoken of in the schoolbooks, this is never done otherwise than in the sense in which the Turk conceives of his God; for of the God of the Christians, who has revealed himself as the Triune God, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, there is never any mention. The religion of the schoolbooks in the public schools is the religion of the lodge brothers, a kind of universal religion by which the children are raised and prepared for the lodge. The religion of the lodges consists, as is well known, in teaching people to seek salvation apart from Christ in their own doing and not-doing, or in their good works, and in a brotherhood of Christians, Jews, Turks, and heathens, to the exclusion of true faith in Jesus Christ. Of Christian religion, which has faith in the triune God as its foundation, not a trace is to be found in the books used in the public schools. But the soul-poison of the false religion often works to the children's temporal and eternal ruin. Just as a physician often has great trouble getting a natural poison back out of the body, so too it is often very hard to remove the soul-poison of the false religion again from the hearts of the children.

P. There you go too far. You will hardly be able to prove that.

H. Very well, I will give the proof at once, namely from McGuffey's Readers, which are much used in the public schools. In the Third Reader, page 22, the irreligious school is credited with a teaching said to lead to eternal rest. A father says to his son:

"Seek the place with knowledge blest,
It will guide to endless rest."

(Seek the place that is blessed with knowledge; that will lead you to eternal rest.)

On page 44 Almighty God is called merely a power. It says there:

"My Son, there is a Power
That none of us can see,
Takes care of every flower,
Gives life to every tree."

(There is, my son, an invisible power which cares for every flower and gives life to every tree.)

In the Fifth Reader, page 306, of the true religion it is said that it consists in doing good. It says there thus:

"Pure and undefiled Religion is to be good." (Being good — that is pure and undefiled religion.)

In the Fifth Reader, page 338 and elsewhere, death is presented as a blessed thing for everyone; according to these books one need only die to become blessed. In short, it is the Pharisaic, Turkish, and universal religion that is found on very many pages in the books used in the public schools; for one must not think that such things are found only in McGuffey's Readers. The others are not one bit better in this respect.

P. Well indeed, I see now that it is not saying much for religion in the public schools. It can at least not satisfy those to whom pure doctrine is dear and precious and who confess the true Christian faith. But you touched on a point earlier with which I am still not in agreement. You spoke, namely, as though the school had to take the upbringing of the children entirely into its own hands. But that is not so. Indeed, I maintain on the contrary that the school is not needed at all for the upbringing of the children; for the parents can perfectly well see to that themselves at home. If they take the children properly in hand, that is for the most part sufficient.

H. It would not occur to me to say that the upbringing of the children should be left to the school alone. On the contrary, I go so far as to maintain that with regard to the Christian upbringing of the children, the parents themselves hold first place, and that they should rightly assume and fill that place. But every knowledgeable person also knows that if unformed children are to be properly cared for with regard to their upbringing, then school and home must support and complement one another. If this does not happen, there plainly arises a great, indeed often disastrous gap. The matter is still worse if the two work against one another: for what the one part builds, the other tears down again. The ordinary school years of children are, for them, generally the most important with regard to their upbringing. The greatest and most important time of their lives, the time especially suited to their upbringing, they thus spend, with regular school attendance, precisely in school. How, then, is this time to be made up again if during it no consideration at all is given to their upbringing

[Gap in the scan: the right edge of this column is missing from the source; line endings are lost.]
is given? Yes, this […]
is still the least of the harm. […]
lack of discipline, or of misguided […]
prevails in the public schools, […]
deny it. You are a country[man…]
very well how it works when […]
in front and the other behind the […]
Thus, and not otherwise, […]
schools with regard to Chris[tian…]
The children there see from their […]
examples. A Christian house[father…]
to punctual obedience, [while…]
but it learns disobedience […]
yet not done in a Christian way […]
[pa]rents admonish their children to […]
but in the [public] school it is […]
instilled into them as a matter of principle.
well from such an up[bringing…]
These circumstances and condition[s…]
Christian parish schools to […]

The home affords, in many […]
a thorough substitute; for often [it lacks] […]
the necessary gift, the necessary wis[dom…]
Christian earnestness, which for [upbringing…]
are required. Where there […]
is remedied, then it, even if […]
will still remain very deficient.
[the knowledge and ability] that a person needs for this […]
the children only very rarely [acquire…]
in many cases it lacks […]
the necessary gift, or the [ability…]
in other cases they have no [time…]
to instruct their children themselves in this […]
There, then, only a Christian [parish school…]
can help.

P. You have said a good deal against […]
and much in favor of [the public…]
schools, which I […]
But you have not entirely taken my [objection…]
from me. The [objection I mean] […]
concerns the English language.
country, in which the Eng[lish…]
is the national, legal, and almost […]
common language. Whoever does not […]
is mocked as a Dutchman. [Whoever…]
does not learn English quite excel[lently…]
is hindered everywhere in getting ahead.
of the English language he can […]
fulfill his calling as a citizen.
as honest people well [able…]
could administer as fellow citizens […]
remain closed to them, as they […]
can. And where are they to [learn this…]
in the public schools? [They…]
mostly have no adequate [opportunity] for it […]
whether they learn German or n[ot…]
does not matter. English, English […]
is the main thing! The German [language…]
will in any case not [survive] in the long run […]
the sooner our children [give up] Ger[man…]
and make use of English, the [better…]

H. That parents, so far as it lies with them, should see to […]
that their children learn [English] well […]
But if you think that th[is…]
can happen [only] in [public] schools, then [I…]
in many of our congregation[al schools…]
opportunity is given, and [instruction] […]
both in German and in [English…]
is given. As for [English…]
it is indeed found here and there in our […]