# Synodical Conference Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1900_S15
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

of the Ev. Luth. Synodical Conference of North America. 1900. 15

description of the concept of religion does not get beyond a shallow general moral teaching needs no confession. And to bring such a natural morality into the state school as a means of education is the aim of many who recognize in the complete religionlessness of the state school the cause why the education of the young is in such a bad way.

So writes Kiehle, already cited, State School Superintendent of Minnesota: "To those who deny that the state is competent to instruct and exercise its youth in morals, one may answer that the origin, the authority or the basis of any law or truth that is necessary to the welfare of the state does not present itself as a question in which the state has an interest, or which must first be decided before the state can make use of it. Nor is the state obliged to forgo the advantage that flows from systems of truth merely because questions remain in them on which the learned are not agreed. . . . This principle holds with equal right of morals. Without asking what the foundation of a moral obligation may be, or who sets it forth with authority, one can assume that the world possesses from some source a great store of moral teachings whose reasonableness and authority are beyond all question. And these truths, as the common property of our civilization, the state can wisely incorporate into its system of instruction and education. The foundation for all successful instruction in morals must lie in practice, as distinguished from moral instruction. Hence the virtues of courtesy, self-denial and the like must first become known to the child through example and then be developed in his character through the activities that belong to the social relations of child life, children with children and with those who are older. It will not be doubted that this is by far the most important part of the teacher's work, without which the impressing of precepts counts for little. But afterward, and founded upon it, these experiences must be formulated into principles and commandments, whose application constantly widens as the child's relations and responsibilities extend." (It may be said in reply to those who deny the competency of the state to instruct and train its youth in morals, that the source, authority, or basis of any law or truth necessary to the welfare of the state is not a question in which the state is interested, or one to be settled, before the state can appropriate it to its own use. Neither is the state bound to deny itself the advantage of systems of truth, simply because there remain questions upon which scholars differ. . . . This principle applies with equal reason to morals. Without considering the question of the basis of moral obligation, or who are its authoritative exponents, it may be assumed that, whatever