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ing would be to make no regulation about religious instruction at all . Leave it to the feeling- of each neighbourhood ; and in the Act of Parliament constituting the schools , let not one word be said about it , either in the way of prohibition or regulation . Thus an opening will be left for its introduction , if
the people be agreed about it ; but , if they cannot agree , one of two things will happen ; either they will omit it altogether , and the matter will fall to the charge of Sabbatli-scliools ; or else they will divide into two parties , set up an opposition school , quarrel violently for a few months , and in a few years be as good friends as ever ; and the country mil have two schools in place of one . "—Pp . 49 , 50 .
Mr . Bryce might have added , that teachers , such at least as he proposes to send up and down the land , ought to understand the nature of religious instruction well enough to communicate a great deal to their pupils without the probability of giving offence either to Catholic or Protestant . It is the least important part of that great business which does the mischief . Who would have the heart to expel a mild , affectionate , effective teacher , for bringing home to a child ' s feelings the beautiful lessons of pure Christian morality ; or for making him acquainted , as far , probably , as his age admits ,
with the character of the Saviour , and the glorious purposes of his mission ? We have often been made to regret the state of some of our Lancasterian schools , which , because a difference of religious sentiments in the members of a committee forbids the introduction of all religious books but the Bible , are subjected to a dry and uninteresting reading of that sacred volume , and learn little that they are able immediately to apply . But this would never
be the case , let the restrictions on a teacher with regard to books be what they might , if a devotional spirit and a cultivated , well-instructed mind were brought to the task . The absence of books of direct religious teaching would in such a case force out a degree of extempore talent , of practical application , which might be in the end better for children than the indolent habit of trusting to what is written .
There is another favourite position of Mr . Bryce , in establishing which we wish him more success than , it is to be feared , he will easily meet with . " The radical error , " says he , in all schemes of national education hitherto proposed is , that they are schemes for the poor . Now we say , that in order to have good teachers for the poor , there must be one common system of education for them and for the rich . We do not mean that the children of the rich and of the poor must necessarily meet in the same school to be taught ; but that the same machine of national education must furnish teachers for
both . The teacher who labours among the poor requires just as high qualifications as he who labours among the rich : he may not need the same extent of learning , or the same knowledge of the world , but he requires even more skill and dexterity in his art , because the minds on which he is to work are in an inferior state of cultivation . But scarcely any man of talent will take charge of a pauper school , though he will have no objection to a school with small income , and attended by humble pupils , if he is to be one of a profession , all whose members may claim a connexion with one another , so that honour is reflected on all from the respectability of those who are at the head of it . "
" Curates , " as he afterwards observes , " live upon very low salaries , and yet are men of education . " In the above we entirely concur . The most difficult part of the subject is the future , if not present , interference of Government in the appointment of teachers . For awhile the supply must precede the demand . There is no possibility of making the people feel a want of this kind , without first in some degree supplying it .
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Nation ** I Education for Ireland . 241
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VOL . III . S
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1829, page 241, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2571/page/17/
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