CHILDREN OF UNITARIAN PARENTS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS.
[To TEl EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
Sin,—In a note which you append to the letter of Mr. C. A. Brodribb appearing in your issue of February 24th, you state that "the number of Unitarian parents who send their children to elementary schools is by no means large." Permit me to point out that over three thousand five hundred children attend Unitarian Sunday-schools in London, over thirteen thoriea.nd five hundred in Manchester, two thousand in Liverpool, three thousand five hundred in Birmingham and its district, and some thirteen thousand five hundred in other parts of the country, and that nearly all of these children attend the elementary day-schools. Surely, there- fore, Unitarians have the right to ask that their views may be heard when the question of religious training in the day-schools comes up for decision. As far as I am aware, Unitarians were perfectly satisfied with such religious teach- ing as was given by the London School Board and the Boards of other large centres. The children were well grounded in fundamental religious truths and obtained a good knowledge of the Bible. They thus acquired in the day-school a ground- ing in religion upon which Sunday-school and other teachers could base the definite theological instruction of their particular denomination. Personally, I very much hope that fundamental religious teaching will be retained in our elementary day-schools, and that such instruction will be imparted to the children as a whole, and not in groups determined by their parents' particular denomination.—I am,
Sir, &c., R. ASQUITH WOODING,
Hon. Sec., London (Unitarian) Sunday-School Society 21 Douglas Road, Canonbury, N.
[We note with satisfaction that our correspondent is opposed to the secularisation of the schools.—En. Spectator.]
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