The tenets of particular sects are not taught; but the great
truths of Christianity, which are received by Christians generally, are
accepted and taught by a large majority of committees and teachers. It
is not claimed that the public schools are religious institutions; but
they recognize and inculcate those fundamental truths which are the
basis of individual character, and the best support of social,
religious, and political life. The statement that the public schools are
demoralizing must be true, if true at all, for one of three reasons.
Either because all education is demoralizing; or, secondly, because the
particular education given in the public schools is so; or, thirdly,
because the public-school system is corrupting, and consequently taints
all the streams of knowledge that flow through or emanate from it. For,
if the public system is unobjectionable as a system, and education is
not in itself demoralizing, then, of course, no ground remains for the
charge that I am now considering.
I. _Is all education demoralizing?_ An affirmative answer to this
question implies so much that no rational man can accept it. It is
equivalent to the assertion that barbarism is a better condition than
civilization, and that the progress of modern times has proceeded upon a
misconception of the true ideal perfection of the human race. As no one
can be found who will admit that his happiness has been marred, his
powers limited, or his life degraded, by education, so there is no
process of logic that can commend to the human understanding the
doctrine that bodies of men are either less happy or virtuous for the
culture of the intellect.
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