RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION IN THE SCHOOLS

Abstract

THE rise and spread of popular education in Great Britain during last century naturally came about in close connexion with religious bodies. For reasons that lay far back in history, the established Church regarded itself as responsible for any education that might be given to the common people. This claim was disputed by the Dissenters, so that when in 1833 the State definitely stepped in with its little building grant of £20,000 a year, both parties had to be recognized. The general direction in which the wind of progress blew at that time is indicated by the fact that the same Parliament in the same year granted £30,000 for the. improvement of the royal stables. Still, a beginning was made in State intervention in education. With that beginning, however, there began also the 'religious difficulty' which has dogged the footsteps of educational reformers ever since, and which, as is plainly to be seen, is with us to this day. That difficulty may be envisaged as a difference between Church and Chapel, or as a difference between definite doctrinal instruction and 'simple Bible teaching', or as the question whether Christian education should mean the inculcation of the Christian ethic or Christian doctrine or both.