German Evangelical.-The German Evangelical Synod of North America reports 'Evangelischer Kalender, 1896, St. Louis, Mo.) 410 schools, 145 teachers, 385 pastors who conduct schools, and 17,911 pupils. These, like the Lutheran pupils, have been distributed for the State table by comparison with the Eleventh Census (1890), and are liable to the same error of distribution as the Lutheran figures, but they are not likely to mislead one who aims to get a clear outline of their principal locations. Protestant Episcopal.-The Protestant Episcopal Church (American Church Almanac and Yearbook, 1896) reports 336 teachers and 6,860 pupils with their geographical distribution. Holland Christian Reformed.-The Holland Christian Reformed Church in North America (Jaarboeckje ten dienste der Holl. Christelijke Gereformeerde Kerk in Noord Amerika, 1896) reports by name each congregation with a school, the teachers in charge, and the number of pupils. There are 17 schools and 2,229 pupils. Moravian.-The Moravians, as indicated near the beginning of this statement, have a very old parochial school at Bethlehem, Pa., now grown to cover all primary and secondary departments. The pupils are reported in the table of academic and secondary schools in the reports of the Bureau of Education. Bishop J. M. Levering, under date of July 21, 1896, says: "The school at Bethlehem is the only parochial school maintained by the Moravian Church in the United States except a boys' school at Salem, N. C. In making this statement I leave out of account a few little schools maintained during part of each winter in certain German country parishes in the West, the attendance at which all figures in the public school enrollment." * Mennonites.-A letter from Kansas dated August 31, 1896, says: "The Mennonites of Kansas have no schools that are intended to supplant the public schools. In every Mennonite congregation, however, there is one or more summer schools for children. In these schools German is the language taught. In these schools, too, religious training is made prominent. The German Mennonite teachers of Kansas have formed an association which makes it a point to secure statistics of all the German schools among the Mennonites of Kansas." Reformed Church in America.—The board of education of the Reformed Church in America has a small fund which it uses for the aid of parochial schools, but it has no report from unaided schools. During the past year the board has aided 6 schools, of which 2 have become self-supporting. There are 4 of the 6 in New York, with about 128 scholars, and 2 in New Jersey, with about 150 scholars, as stated by the secretary of the board. For the German Presbyterians, the Reformed Church in America, of Dutch antecedents, the Reformed Church in the United States, of German antecedents, the Mennonites, the Reformed Episcopal, and the United German Evangelical, the latest full returns at hand are those of the Eleventh Census, which are here utilized. There are a few scattered parochial schools among other denominations, especially those having a German membership, but they are for the most part small and temporary in their character. The following table represents very closely the number of children in parochial schools in the United States: The following are the denominations in the column "all others" of the preceding table, with the distribution of pupils: A glance at the tables will show the general location of any group of parochial schools. Northern New England and, generally, the South have few parochial schools. The Roman Catholics have some parochial schools in nearly every State, are strong in southern New England, relatively strong in Maryland, Kentucky, and Louisiana, of the South, and California, of the West, and from Kansas eastward to the Atlantic Ocean. Lutherans and other German and Scandinavian organizations are weak in New England and in the South, but are relatively strong in the States between New England and the Rocky Mountains. The Holland Christian Reformed Church has considerable local strength in southwestern Michigan. In the country as a whole the parochial schools report an enrollment about 7 per cent as great as the public common schools; in the North Atlantic Division, about 11 per cent; in the North Central, just below 10 per cent; below 2 per cent in either South Division; about 4 per cent in the Western Division. The Lutherans and kindred denominations have a multitude of small rural schools often in the vacations of public schools which the children also attend. The Catholics have many large schools of a permanent character in cities. It is not easy to determine how many of the children counted as parochial pupils are also returned in the enrollment for public schools. In the North Central Division, especially, there are many parochial schools that last but a few weeks in a year. A careful canvass was made of German Protestant parochial schools in Wisconsin in 1890 by Mr. Christ. Koerner. He endeavored to determine how many of the pupils were also enrolled in the public schools. The returns were in general terms, and could not be reduced to numerical accuracy. Some schools reported that all the pupils attended public schools, others that half or more did so, a few that none attended, and a few that all attended before or after confirmation. The number of pupils distinctly reported as not attending public schools was very small. There are a few cities where schools still reported as parochial in the Catholic yearbooks are also reported as public schools. The situation at Savannah, Ga., has been herein explained. The conditions are similar at Augusta, giving in this State a duplication of at least 1,324 counted in both public schools and parochial schools. A kindred case occurs in New Haven, Conn., producing a duplication of some ED 95-53 905. Public schools under Catholic control, enrolling small numbers, have existed within recent years in several States, but the conditions are often transient, constantly liable to change, so that a report of such union true in a given year has ceased to be true when investigated at a later date. It appears that a majority of the pupils in the German Protestant parochial schools are at some time in the year enrolled in public schools. There is a known duplication of Catholic children as parochial pupils and public-school pupils at points named above (Savannah and Augusta, Ga., and New Haven, Conn.). It seems reasonable to suppose that about 500,000 are in parochial schools who are not enrolled during the year in public schools. There are about 350,000 enrolled in denominational schools of higher forms, but those in academies, colleges, and seminaries are generally reached in the reports for private schools. PURPOSES OF PAROCHIAL SCHOOLS. There is a general accord among all denominations and sects as to the necessity of religious instruction, but there is not such general accord as to elementary religious instruction by each parish or church. Each of the great denominations has its board of education or some corresponding organization to impress the needs of its schools, especially secondary and higher, upon the people, but the specific attachment of an elementary school of an emphatically religious type to each congregation is a policy almost limited in practice to Roman Catholics and to Lutheran and other reformed groups derived from central and northern Europe, but theoretically valued by Episcopal, Presbyterian, and other bodies. Even the small denominations consider it urgent to maintain schools of their own wherever they can. Morarians.-The Moravians are of relatively small numbers, not much known by the nation at large, but they have a remarkable record for devotion and for earnestness regarding education. "The Moravian Church has always insisted upon special attention to the Christian education of the young, and therefore not only provides many religious services particularly for the children, but also regards its school work as second to no other branch of activity in its claim upon intelligent, prayerful interest, faithful consecrated effort, and cheerful, adequate support.1 "The Moravian parochial school of Bethlehem, Pa., owes its origin to the principle that education, whether under church, state, or private control, should be conducted in subordination to religion. Its management subscribes the proposition that Christian education consists not so much in imparting knowledge as in drawing out the grace of God for the work of life. Church members recognize the fact that knowledge is power, but a power for good only when pursued in the fear of God." Friends.―The following utterance of Friends, with variations of detail, would be indorsed in almost any denomination: "We believe the duty to be incumbent upon Friends, as a religious body, to provide means for the liberal education of all their children, under circumstances favorable to the maintenance of our religious principles and testimonies. By our discipline, children whose parents are members are themselves members by birthright. The discipline also recognizes the care and concern for them by propounding these two familiar queries: 'Are Friends careful to educate their children in plainness of speech, deportment, and apparel; to guard them against reading pernicious books and from corrupt conversation?' And 'Do they place their children for tuition under the care of suitable teachers in membership with us?' Does not the implied obligation of parents to place their children at the kind of school indicated by the query demand of us to have such schools, as far as practicable, within the reach of all our members?" 3 Report of the Moravian Congregation of Bethlehem, Pa., 1895. * Address of some members of the Society of Friends, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York Yearly Meetings, 1861. Presbyterians.-The Presbyterians maintain many academies, colleges, and theological seminaries, and there are Presbyterians who desire parochial schools, but, as expressed in a pamphlet, Denominational Education, in 1854, in language still applicable, "the sentiment of the church is very far from being united in favor of those measures." Protestant Episcopal.-The following is the utterance of a national Protestant Episcopal convention (1871): "The first educator is the parent, the mother, the father, to whom this duty is assigned by divine appointment. A Christian education must begin at # "Parochial schools are an important agency in the work of Christian education. And where they are practicable and can be rendered efficient, especially in those parts of the country where the common schools are deficient in number or in thoroughness of training, they should be heartily sustained. But they can only in a very limited degree supply the place of the public schools of the country. * "The attitude which we should maintain toward the common schools of the country has engaged the attention of your committee. We feel that we ought to give to those schools our cordial support. "But while churchmen lend a firm support to the common schools from the dietates at once of patriotism and religion, they should unite their influence to secure in them as large a measure of religious instruction as may be expedient and attainable." The following Protestant Episcopal utterance comes close to a Catholic view as to distribution of public money: "Protestants, according to their fundamental principle, are pledged to show the utmost liberty to all in the exercise of their religions tendencies, and we therefore conclude that the allowing any communion of Christians to educate their own children in their own schools, supported by an equitable proportion of their school tax, is no compromise of the boasted principle of American Protestantism. "Your committee think that ultimately this plan may be adopted, not in opposition to, or in substitution for our free school system, but as supplemental to it, and so allaying irritation, securing religious education, and doing no violence to the freedom of conscience guaranteed by the Constitution. "But such an arrangement is impracticable, and perhaps impossible, at this time. The convictions of the great majority are opposed, for the great majority have not yet learned to concede that minoritics have rights even in matters of conscience." Roman Catholics.-The latest comprehensive authoritative statement of the position of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States upon the subject of education makes no explicit reference to a division of funds, but deals almost entirely with the duty of the church or its members toward the schools. It is as follows: FOR THE SETTLING OF THE SCHOOL QUESTION AND THE GIVING OF RELIGIOUS EDUCATION. The Most Rev. Francis Satolli, Archbishop of Lepanto, Delegate of the Apostolic See to the United States of America, to the archbishops assembled in New York: I. All care must be taken to erect Catholic schools, to enlarge and improve those already established, and to make them equal to the public schools in teaching and in discipline. (Conc. Plen. Balt. III, No. 197, p. 101.) II. When there is no Catholic school at all, or when the one that is available is little fitted for giving the children an education in keeping with their condition, then the public schools may be attended with a safe conscience, the danger of perversion being rendered remote by opportune remedial and precautionary measures, 1 Committee on Education, General Convention, Protestant Episcopal, 1871. Christian Education, a report to the Ninetieth Annual Convention of the Diocese of New Jersey, 1873. |