The Choctaw Freedmen Part 56

"Truth crushed to earth shall rise again,-- The eternal years of G.o.d are hers; But Error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies among his worshippers."

"Truth forever on the scaffold; Wrong forever on the throne; Yet that scaffold sways the future; And behind the dim unknown, Standeth G.o.d, within the shadow, Keeping watch above his own."

Queen Victoria said to the King of Siam: "England owes her greatness to this book--The Open Bible."

The Bible, and the public school to make known to all the children its moral principles and religious truths, have brought liberty, greatness and enlargement to the United States of America and Great Britain.

These two instrumentalities--the open Bible and public school--will bring the needed blessings of intelligence, happiness and prosperity to the people of the United States of Mexico, of Central and South America, when they are accorded a fair chance.

XLVII

THE PUBLIC SCHOOL

AN OUTGROWTH OF THE REFORMATION.--PORTO RICO.--MISSION SCHOOLS.--COLONIAL SCHOOLS.--Ma.s.sACHUSETTS AND CONNECTICUT.--NEW YORK AND PENNSYLVANIA.--THE BIBLE, THE STANDARD OF MORALITY.--RISE AND FALL OF INTOLERANCE.--DANIEL WEBSTER.--THE BIBLE, THE FREEDMAN'S BEST BOOK.--THE CHURCH, SUNDAY SCHOOL, PUBLIC SCHOOL.--ENCOURAGING MOVEMENTS.

"Education is the cheap defense of a Nation."--Garfield.

"Wisdom is the princ.i.p.al thing, therefore get wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."--Solomon.

The public school is the general and permanent agency for the education and uplift of the colored people. Religious and independent schools may do a splendid work in their several localities, but the public school is intended to be state-wide. It alone reaches the ma.s.ses of colored children, and it should receive its due share of the public funds. The fact that they have not received any thing like a fair share of the public funds, for their equipment and support, has already been stated.

This, to a great extent, is an act of injustice. Conditions however are gradually improving. They are made better as a good use is made of present educational facilities, and earnest appeal is made for more and better ones. A vast amount of self-sacrificing work, on the part of teachers and parents, is needed to bring the schools of the Freedmen up to their proper standard, and to secure them, where they are still needed both in city and rural district.

The Freedman alone cannot do all that is needed, to provide adequate educational facilities for all his people; but there is so much that may be done, in the way of awakening local interest, supplying local deficiencies, and appealing for more and better equipment, as to enlist the united and persistent co-operation of all intelligent, public spirited Freedmen.

AN OUTGROWTH OF THE REFORMATION

The public school system, in the United States, is an outgrowth, or by-product of the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century in Europe. Harvard college was established at Cambridge, near Boston, in 1639, less than twenty years after the first arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers. Its object was to provide a supply of trained ministers and christian teachers, to meet the rapidly growing needs of the colony.

The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign parts, organized in London, England, in 1701, aided the colonists in the establishment of free schools, by sending them donations and supplies of bibles and testaments. Christian teachers were employed in these free schools and two of the text books used were the Bible and the New England primer. This primer was ill.u.s.trated with Bible pictures and contained the shorter catechism.

These colonial free schools of New England were gradually extended to the other colonies, but not without calling forth some opposition in some of them, especially where there was opposition to the use of the Bible. This fact has been rendered quite memorable, by the rather unenviable remark of Governor Berkeley of Virginia in 1670, to the effect, "I thank G.o.d, there are no free schools in Virginia."

The scattered condition of the population rendered difficult and greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded the progress of free schools in the south. Planters were often widely separated, and many of them preferred to send their children away to school, or employ a private tutor for them. They did not care to provide schools for the Negroes.

When, by the adoption of the Const.i.tution the colonies became states, the protection of religion and encouragement of education were left as they had been, as matters to be considered by the legislatures of the several states. As one state after another has been admitted to the Union, extending it over a vast extent of country, a system of public education has been adopted in each, ranging from the rural school to the state university. The system in every state is quite complete and more or less efficient to accomplish its objects. The entire system is due to the presence of the Bible in our land, and especially during the formative period of our government. The states have deemed it necessary to train the young and rising generation in the interest of good government and progress.

As the church of the Reformation in Europe, and of our forefathers in New England, found it necessary to establish academies, colleges and theological seminaries, in order to train a constantly increasing supply of christian teachers, statesmen and ministers, the states have realized that it is their duty to maintain public and high schools, in order to have an intelligent and prosperous citizenship; and to maintain normal schools and universities, in order to provide a sufficient number of professional teachers, legislators, jurists and efficient captains of industry.

The system of public education in all the states is one, of which every citizen of the land may well be proud, and endeavor to take every possible advantage of it as teachers, patrons and pupils.

PORTO RICO 1898-1913

A splendid ill.u.s.tration of its inestimable value has just been received from Porto Rico. In 1898 when the United States received the transfer of Porto Rico from Spain, it had been for centuries under the control of Romanism. There was then only one building on the island, specially erected for school purposes, and more than eighty per cent of the population could neither read nor write; and only 26,000 children had been enrolled as attending school. So rapid has been the progress toward enlightenment and a better civilization under Protestant American rule, that at the end of fifteen years there are 40 school buildings and 162,000 children are enrolled as attending school; and the number of the illiterate has been reduced from 80 to 11 per cent.

THE BIBLE AND CHRISTIAN TEACHERS

One is now ready to inquire, "Wherein does our splendid system of public education differ from that provided by the various Protestant denominations, in their mission schools, academies, colleges and universities?"

Both are essential to the well-being of the state. They are two strong pillars that, supplementing and standing near each other, support the power and promote the material prosperity of the state. Their mutual relation is aptly expressed, by the sentiment of the two brothers on the shield of Kentucky, "United we stand, divided we fall." They look so nearly alike in buildings and equipment, the pa.s.sing observer sees little or no difference in their outward appearance.

Nevertheless there is often a difference in their objects and products, which has already been noted, and in the means employed to accomplish these objects. This difference is fundamental. It is found in the law of their establishment.

In the admirable system of public education in the state of Iowa, which is second to none in the land for the goodness and greatness of its beneficent results, there is found the following statute, and it is a fair ill.u.s.tration of similar statutes in other states.

"The Bible shall not be excluded from any public school or inst.i.tution in this state, nor shall any pupil be required to read it contrary to the wishes of his parents or guardian." Sec. 1764.

This statute takes it for granted the Bible is in the schools, and that is excellent; it has also a concession and the latter often prevails.

Many Jews read only the old Testament, and many Catholics out of regard for the pope, a foreign potentate, think they ought not to read any part of the Bible. The state is a secular power and the result, of this concession to religious freedom, is, that the Bible and the Christian teacher, in many localities, are not regarded as essential features of its educational work.

This leaves the moral character and relative value of our public schools, to a considerable extent, to the caprice of those who are in the majority or authority, as directors and teachers in any particular community. In christian communities they are invariably found exerting a christian influence.

The Bible and the christian teacher are essential for the accomplishment of the greatest good. These are seldom separated, and when they are found together in the public school, it becomes a fountain of elevating christian influences. This privilege is enjoyed by many of our communities, where the supply of christian teachers is equal to the demand.

This discussion of the public school has been included here, for the general knowledge of christian families among the colored people. Since the enactment of laws, limiting the teachers in the public schools of the colored people, to those of the "colored persuasion," there is now and will continue to be, an ever increasing demand for capable christian teachers. Christian teachers come from christian homes and christian schools.

COLONIAL SCHOOLS

The historic facts, showing that the open Bible has been the corner-stone of the American public school system, have been so interesting and suggestive to the author, as to lead him to take the initiative, in effecting and maintaining a local Bible society in Fonda, and to make the distribution of the Scriptures among the people, a special feature of his ministry there, and later at Oak Hill Academy.

The hope is indulged, that the following facts, relating to the place accorded the Bible in the schools of the colonies, will prove of interest to every reader, especially among the Freedmen.

Our fore fathers and the stalwart statesmen of their day, were not led astray by the "higher" or more properly called destructive criticism and infidelity, that is now permeating much of the literature of our day to the great injury of all who are influenced by it. Indebted to the Scriptures for their ideas of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," and, prizing them as the foundation of their civil and ecclesiastical privileges, they manifested both their sense of obligation to them and dependence upon them, by making them the corner stone of every inst.i.tution they established. The word of G.o.d in their hand, like a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night, led them to locate in this land, awakened in them the spirit of heroism amid all their privations and sufferings, and served as their common guide and comforter, in all their struggles and progress.

If there are any who have the right to judge and to have their judgment respected, as to the nature of the education needed in this republic, surely those men of sagacity, patriotism, piety and comprehensive statesmanship, who founded both the system of education and the Republic, are among the number.

During the Colonial period the towns were little republics, with the Bible for their foundation, and their schools were established for general instruction in that book. The exclusion of the Bible from those early schools would have been repugnant to their founders. They regarded the Bible not merely as an authoritative book in all matters of conscience, but as the charter of their liberty and their guide to the independent ownership of land.

Ma.s.sACHUSETTS

The Colony of Ma.s.sachusetts Bay, as early as 1647, less than twenty years from the date of their first charter, made provision by law, for the support of schools at the public expense; for instruction in reading and writing in every town containing fifty families, and grammar schools in those containing one hundred families. This n.o.ble foundation suggests the religious foresight that laid it. The preamble to this school law contained the following motives: "It being one chief object of Satan to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures, as in former times keeping them in unknown tongues, therefore, that learning may not be buried in the graves of our fore fathers, the Lord a.s.sisting our endeavors, it is ordered," etc.

Horace Mann, secretary of the Ma.s.sachusetts Board of Education, has left on record this n.o.ble testimony for all the teachers of our country. "As educators, as friends and sustainers of the common school system, our great duty is to impart to the children of the commonwealth the greatest practicable amount of useful knowledge; to cultivate in them a sacred regard for truth, to keep them unspotted from the world; to train them to love G.o.d and also their fellow men; to make the perfect example of Jesus Christ lovely in their eyes; to give to all so much religious instruction, as is compatible with the rights of others and the gains of our government, so that, when they arrive at the years of maturity, they may intelligently enjoy the inviolable prerogatives of private judgment and self-direction, the acknowledged birthright of every human being."

Rufus Choate, the eminent statesman and jurist in one of his orations very emphatically exclaimed: "Banish the Bible from our public schools?

Never! So long as a piece of Plymouth Rock remains big enough to make a gun-flint." This is an expression of true patriotism on the part of one, who knew well the history and cost of American freedom. "He is the freeman, whom the truth makes free."

CONNECTICUT

In the Colony of Connecticut as early as 1656, explicit laws were added to the general law by which the schools were first established, and constables were required to take care, "That all their children and apprentices, as they grow capable, may through G.o.d's blessing attain at least so much as to be able to read the Scriptures, and other good books in the English tongue."