The American Missionary — Volume 42, No. 05, May, 1888 by Various
page 14 of 77 (18%)
page 14 of 77 (18%)
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"Secular teaching is the object of the ordinary Government schools,
but surely there can be no objection to reading a chapter in the Bible in English, or in Dakota if English could not be understood, at the daily opening of those schools, as is done in very many other well-regulated secular schools. It may be, too, that the use of words in the vernacular may be sometimes necessary to aid in communicating a knowledge of the English language, but the use of the vernacular should not be encouraged or continued beyond the limit of such necessity, and the "text books," the "oral instruction" in a general sense, and the curriculum certainly should be in English. In missionary schools moral and religious instruction may be given in the vernacular as an auxiliary to English in conveying such instruction. Here, while the desirability of some instruction in morals and religion is recognized, the extreme value of learning the English language is not lost sight of. And the provision which follows, that only native teachers shall "otherwise" (that is, except for moral or religious instruction) teach the vernacular, and only in remote places and until Government or contract schools are established, is in exact keeping with the purpose of the Government to exclude the Indian languages from the schools as far as is consistent with a due regard for the continuance of moral and religious teaching in the missionary schools, and except in such cases as the exclusion would result in the entire neglect of secular or other instruction." On this letter let me remark: 1. That it concedes what has not heretofore been granted, the reading of the Bible in the vernacular in contract schools and its use in explaining the English. We accept this concession with gratification. |
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