A Letter of affectionate remonstrance addressed to the members of the Established Church in Norwich and in Norfolk and occasioned by the proposed exclusive system of infant educationAlexander, John
Religion
A Letter of affectionate remonstrance addressed to the members of the Established Church in Norwich and in Norfolk and occasioned by the proposed exclusive system of infant education
Alexander, John
Church and education -- England
AN advertisement has appeared in the Norwich papers of the 26th instant,
announcing that “a public meeting of members of the Established Church
will be held in the Hall in the Market, Norwich, on Thursday, 7th of
April, for the purpose of forming a Society to promote the extension of
the Infant School system in the County and City.” It is somewhat
remarkable that a notice of such importance, and addressed to a large and
respectable body of Christians, should have been inserted in the public
papers _anonymously_, and that you should be called upon to assemble in
the Hall, without knowing by whose authority such an assembly is
convened, and without even knowing who is to preside on the occasion.
Believing, however, that the advertisement does proceed from some
competent authority, and perceiving, from the terms in which it is
expressed, that all the inhabitants of this City, except “the members of
the Established Church,” are prohibited from attending the meeting, I
take the liberty, as one of the excluded party, of addressing you from
the press—and my object in so doing, is to explain to you the principles
on which the Infant schools in Norwich have hitherto been conducted, and
to recommend those principles to your adoption at the approaching
meeting.
You are probably aware that several friends to the education of children,
and especially to their moral and religious education, have originated,
and, for some years, supported Infant schools in this neighbourhood, the
principal of which are to be found in Lakenham, in Crook’s Place, and in
the parish of St. Miles. These schools have hitherto been conducted not
on sectarian, but on catholic and Christian principles. Children of all
classes have been admitted as scholars, and, besides imparting to them
the elements of general knowledge, they have been taught, according to
their capacities, the facts and histories recorded in the Holy
Scriptures, and the great doctrines relative to the sinfulness of man,
and to the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, on which the majority of
Christians are agreed. The committees of these schools are composed of
members of the Establishment and of other Christian churches, all of
whom, without the slightest degree of jealousy, or of difficulty, have
cordially united in carrying into effect both the intellectual and the
religious parts of the system. The committee of the Lakenham school,
though it, as well as the other schools, is, I believe, chiefly supported
by Dissenters, has, I am informed, regularly invited the respected
clergyman of the parish to attend its meetings; and my connexion with the
school in St. Miles’, enables me to declare, most confidently, that
repeated efforts have been made to induce members of the Established
church to afford greater help in directing its concerns, as well as in
defraying its expenses. I have no doubt that in the other schools,
equally liberal measures have been adopted.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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