Varieties of Religious Experience

The linking of public education and religious teaching was under fire in two states last week.

>New Jersey's Commissioner of Education Charles Herbert Elliott forbade Milltown to give denominational teaching in its only grammar school during school hours. His decision that such teaching would be unconstitutional was buttressed by one parent who wrote: "I don't want [my daughter] to go to school to be taught to be a Roman Catholic or Protestant, but I do expect her to receive character education every hour of every day she is in school."

>New York City's School Superintendnt John E. Wade mulled over a Public Education Association report on the workings of "released time" for religious education. The surveyors decided to continue opposing this system, as they had since it was begun in 1941. They found that many released children (more than 80% of whom are Roman Catholic, in the 89 New York City schools surveyed) did not turn up at their chosen religious schools. Teachers had difficulty in checking, since they were ordered not to comment in school on whether or not a child took religious instructions.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.