60 years ago — May 27, 1957
The American people haven chosen to develop a free and universal public school system. “Memories of unpleasant experiences of ecclesiastical domination of education in Europe and the growth of the Sunday school as a new and experimental institution of Christian education were among the many forces which prompted the body politic to draw the blueprint for a school system compatible with a pluralistic culture. Our public school structure is the result. The same constitutional guarantee protecting the church from any tyranny which would stifle freedom of belief and worship was inseparably mixed into the very mortar of this structure and also insured every child and every parent against imposition of sectarian dogmas in the classroom. … Adherents of the Reformed tradition believe that ‘cloistered living,’ implying a withdrawal from direct participation in the social milieu, is incompatible with the Calvinistic tradition and intent, and that distinct advantage accrues from the interplay of divergent ideas, always amenable of subjection, however, to the transcendent purposes of God.”
From the report to the General Assembly: “The Presbyterian Church in the USA and the Public Schools”
