The Decision of the Appellate Court on Religious Instruction

The decision of the Appellate Court, Third Department, upholding the constitutionality of the law permitting religious instruction of public school pupils one hour each week within school time but outside of school buildings, is deplored by the “Day,” which feels that the law constitutes a violation of the principle of separation between church and state. The paper sees the situation thus:

“The teacher will now have to record the religious affiliations of his pupils. This will be included on the regular school records or in a separate card system. Thus religion will become a topic at school to be discussed and recorded, and a new relationship will be established between pupil and teacher. No matter how objective a teacher may be toward his pupils in other respects he will be bound to have a different attitude to the pupil of certain religions or of no religion. Religion will, in this way, be forced upon the consciousness of the children at the time and in the place where the subject of religion should not be touched. Moreover, the priest, the minister and the rabbi will come to the school in order to pick out the pupils of his flock. This in itself will give the church an entering wedge into the school. The clergyman will become the chaplain of the school.

“An appeal from the decision of the Appellate Court will be made. Whether the law is constitutional or not–it is a had law and constitutes the first wedge of the church into the American school.”

The N. Y. “World” thinks that “the upper courts are likely to sustain the decision.” But, the paper urges: “No one need feel oppressed by a statute permissive as to school authorities and, of course, optional with parents. The desirability of the measure is another matter; debatable, since it is debated. It is a question of educational policy whether the desirability of religious and moral training outweighs the possible introduction of sectarian consciousness among pupils who might otherwise be affected in the schools mainly by a common American consciousness.”