MUTE RS TO . E E I) ITO R. •
THE NEW REGULATIONS AND BIBLE TEACHING. , !To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR." J SIR,—I do not feel sure, after reading the two last lines of your editorial note to Mr. Cobden-Sanderson's letter in your issue of August ,3rd, that you will admit another letter on this difficult and troublesome subject. But I am very anxious to see public attention, or at. least the attention of religious and thoughtful men, directed towards what seems to me to be the worst feature, by far, of the new regulations. I ant astonished that so few persons seem to grasp the fact that while the State, with the approval not only of the Free Churches, but also of a very large proportion indeed of earnest members, lay and clerical, of the national Church, contemplates the provision of common Bible teaching as the basis of religious instruction in all schools alike (except Roman Catholic and Jewish schools), there is not in the new (or, for the matter of that, in the old) regulations any pro- vision whatever for religious instruction of the teachers or for giving them any training whatever in the teaching of the very young in that most difficult of all subjects of instruction. No doubt it may be very difficult, in the present condition of the atmosphere, for the Government to make any positive provision of the kind. But in the absence of any such State provision, surely the denominations should be, not dis- couraged, but encouraged, to make such provision as they can (and to do so by the means of hostels seems to be the easiest and most natural way) to keep alive the religious spirit in their students, and to train them to a sense of the enormous importance of the manner in which religious teach- ing is given to the very young.
I have not a word to say against the admission of Noncon- formists to the Diocesan Training Colleges so long as it may be necessary for want of room elsewhere. I have long foreseen and have publicly stated my opinion that when seventy-five per cent. at least of the cost of those Colleges came from public money they could not expect not to be subjected to the conscience clause. But this does not apply to hostels. And I contend that each denomination, or any two or more, who may desire to establish a hostel for their own students should be allowed to do so. This permission is rendered the more urgently necessary by the fact that in the curriculum of the day training colleges there is not a half-hour in the week to spare for religious training. It is lost sight of altogether. This ought not to be. If the Bible is eventually excluded from the elementary schools (which God forbid!) some pro- vision for religious teaching will be still more necessary and still more difficult. But even common Bible-teaching requires special training. For this training no State provision is even suggested in the new regulations, and the attempted voluntary provision is discouraged.—I am, Sir, &c., Killerfon, Exeter.
CHARLES THOMAS DYKE ACLAND
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