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Christianity had a significant impact on education and public morality in Australia whin
the years of 1788-1900. In relation to public morality, I discuss the significance that the
Christian church had on Australian society in the 1800's by the establishing of the
Temperance movement as well as several other actions involving education.
The temperance movement was dedicated to promoting moderation and, more often,
complete abstinence in the use of intoxicating liquor. Although an abstinence pledge had
been introduced by churches as early as 1800, the earliest temperance organizations seem
to have been those founded at Saratoga, New York, in 1808 and in Massachusetts in
1813. The movement spread rapidly under the influence of the churches
One can see the effect that Christianity had, had on the Australian education system
when, a system was set up separate from the state government. First settlers emphasised
that they wanted to leave all religious divisions (i.e. through culture, mind, and violence)
in Britain. They thought that any ties between "church and state" should be eradicated
and thus support churches over the state. Subsequently, with numerous denominations (of
Christianity) supporting this idea, their strong sentiment towards education, and it, itself
being lead by the church, were dually satisfied by the granting of financial aid to the
major religious groups, including the Church of England.
Denominations of separate, individual churches used this aid to maximise their religious
and educational influence. The governor of the government later extended the state
financial aid and attempted to introduce government schools based on the national system
in his native Ireland. However, non-Anglican Protestants, who had formed in 1835 a
society for promoting schools where the Bible would be a basis for general education,
insisted on its wider use in the proposed national schools than was permitted in the Irish
system. Catholics supported the Governor's proposal, which further angered the
Protestants. The successive alliance between the Anglicans and the Protestant
denominations favourably brought about an anti-Catholic move to condemn concessions
to a religious minority at the expense of national school systems based on the religious
teachings of the Bible.
It is not widely known that the Christian Church first established not by the government
but education in Australia. The history of Australia's Christian day school movement, and
ultimate influence on Australian society is traced within my essay, from its colonial
beginnings to the year 1880 when government education officially began. My essay
reveals that the Bible based church related school of early colonial times was remarkably
successful in meeting the academic and spiritual/moral needs of the younger generation
of that day. It also shows that when certain principles undergirding this Christian school
movement were disregarded, Australian education began to lose its dynamic.
William Penn and Puritan John Drury along with numerous others, who followed them,
placed heavy emphasis upon the need for religious and moral instruction of the colonies
young. In Australia, one sees a similar outreach expressed in the missionary appointment
by the evangelical arm of the Church of England of men such as Richard Johnson and
Samuel Marsden. Various British religious societies and leading reformers such as
ShaResbury and Wilberforce extended continuing encouragement, both financial and
moral, to the Australian church school movement.
The Rev. Richard Johnson, first Chaplain to the Australian colony, was deeply concerned
about the moral state of the convict population to whom he was to minister. Only three
years after the colony's settlement, he began to examine the possibilities of providing
some form of Christian education. Johnson wrote to a friend in England asking him to
recruit someone prepared to establish schools on Sunday for illiterate convicts in New
South Wales "with the intention of bringing some of those unhappy wretches to a better
way of thinking".
Governor King was also deeply concerned about the matter and encouraged the
establishing of schools. He was largely responsible for setting up and even financing
from his own private funds orphanages for the illegitimate offspring of convicts.
Attached to these institutions were schools in which the inmates were taught tailoring,
shoemaking and gardening up to the age of fifteen years.
Originally the Church of England, claiming to be the established church, assumed
responsibility for the education of the new colonists. The Presbyterian and Roman
Catholic Churches who had a large number of followers among the colonists challenged
this.
Australian education was characterised by a number of decades of denominational
disquiet within the early years of the 1800's. By this time a number of denominations
were involved in day school education. The colonial government was faced with the
problem of handling equitably the claims of each. Most of the Government's solutions
were spectacularly unsuccessful and eventually led to compromise. The home
government favoured the Anglican Church and this brought forth opposition from the
Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. It must be remembered that a number of those in the
denominations represented feared that the sectarian strife, even persecution, which had
earlier occurred in Great Britain might be reproduced in Australia. There is little doubt
that a good deal of denominational suspicion and rivalry came to the country with the
First Fleet.
The first major problem came with the setting up in 1830 of The Church and Schools
Corporation. The home government using this legislation set apart one seventh of crown
lands in each country "for the maintenance and support of the clergy and the established
Church of England... and the maintenance and support of schools and schoolmasters in
connection with the established church." The scheme favoured the Anglican Church so
strongly that it soon aroused antagonism from other denominations.
Following several other intense disagreements in the early years of settlement, by various
religions claiming responsibility for education, each colony between 1872 and 1895
passed the "free, compulsory and secular" Education Acts which stopped most financial
assistance to church schools and made primary education a state responsibility. However,
the Catholic Church established its own education system. In 1879 the Catholic Bishops
of Australia realised that large numbers of Catholics were not sending their children to
Catholic schools and issued a Joint Pastoral Letter stating that Catholics must send their
children to Catholic schools unless given special dispensation by their parish priest. It
states;
"...Let parents send their children, when of fit age, exclusively to Catholic schools. Let
them regard all other schools as no places for their children, who have to learn before
everything else to save their souls; and who should be sedulously prepared. By breathing
a Catholic atmosphere, by living amidst Catholic teachers and companions, and by an
exclusively Catholic training, for encountering the perils of the world in which they will
eventually be thrown.
Thirdly, let all Catholic parents know that they cannot, without serious guilt, place their
children in proximate danger of perversion. Let them bear in mind that to do so is to set at
defiance the teachings of the Catholic Church; and that, unless there be exceptional
reasons, and the danger be remote, of which things the Church is the judge, no Confessor
can absolve such parents as are willing to expose their children's souls to the blighting
influence of an alien creed or a secularist system..."
The first official use of the title 'Australia' in Australian history was in 1836 when
William Grant Broughton was made the first 'Bishop of Australia'. And in 1839, when
Bishop Broughton's agenda was completely revealed, it was brought public that he
intended to include the teachings of Anglican evangelists. This was revealed when
Governor Gipps attempted to enforce a Bible-based national system and separate
Catholic schools. Broughton successfully organised a commotion against this plan in
favour of the continuation of state support for Anglican schools. Using this success,
Protestants called for government aid for their own educational programs. When an elite
committee of the New south Wales Legislative Council proposed the Irish system in1846,
Catholics, concerned that the schools could become completely empowered by
Protestants, joined Anglicans and other denominations, especially Wesleys, in opposing
it. A compromise in 1848 agreed to separate denominational and Irish-type national
schools.
Although this view was strongly supported, some influential colonists wanted the
financial aid to end in order to eliminate duplication and ensure that public instruction
was controlled and financed by each colonial government. Christians and secularists
combined with politicians to bring an end to this form of state aid. This was a major
knock back to the influence of the Protestant churches. Even though secondary schools
and universities were to be strong influences on colonial powers, the Roman Catholic
Church showed that their schools could provide a strong cultural and religious influence.
Rome and Pope Pius XII Syllabus of Errors which condemned state supported secular
education encouraged the Australian Catholic Church. Hogan argues that the policies of
the Catholic hierarchy from the 1860s onwards pitted them alone against the majority of
Australians, Hogan argues:
"...The strategy of the Catholic bishops ... [was] ... directed at the general community. By
the late 1860s the bishops had decided that the battle to preserve state aid for
denominational schools was all but lost ... The only thing was to prepare for the period
after aid was withdrawn ... Another reason for the attacking strategy was to prepare for
the reinstatement of aid at some future time. The arguments of Bishop Goold or of
Archbishop Vaughan ... were to be the standard arguments of Catholic spokesmen for the
next century..."
To the end of the 1800's, there was a significant transformation of state education, lead by
the Catholic school system. It was in place in every colony, continuing the work of
religious orders like the Australian-founded Josephites, the Marist and Christian Brothers
who came to Australia at the invitation of Australian bishops.
However the profound success of the Catholic school system being set up, many
Protestants argued against such denominational school systems, proclaiming that both
children could be unduly influenced by their religious ideals and practices. The Catholics
rebutted this theory, saying "have schools based on religious principles in every part of
the curriculum" was essential for a successful education within the Australian society.
The New South Wales Public Instruction Act of 1880 was typical of a number of acts
passed in six of the colonial states of Australia Through these sets; public education
became strictly secular in the sense that assistance to church schools was abolished. The
New South Wales 1880 Act set down clearly the nature of teachings in public schools
and the conditions under which religious instruction was to be given:
"In all Schools under the Act, the teaching shall be strictly non-sectarian but the words
secular instruction shall be held to include the general religious teaching as distinct from
dogmatically or polemical theology. "
It also stated that:
"In every public school four hours during each day shall be devoted to secular instruction
exclusively and a portion of each day, not more than one hour, shall be set apart when the
children of any one religious persuasion may be instructed by the clergyman or other
religious teacher of such persuasion." Although Religious teachings began to be more
heavily monitored by the government, religious influence on Australian society
ultimately drove the state government to establishment of their own system, free from
absolute religious leadership.
One can notice the significant influence that Christianity had on society, through
education during 1788-1900 and how at times caused conflict between Christian
denominations who were adamant to have ultimate control in Australian society and to
enforce their own Christian teachings, such as with the Protestants.
Several key religious and public figures were focused on the transformation of Australian
society's moral standings. One of the leading, most positively supported of these figures
was a Wesleyan Methodist layman, John Colton. He and other Methodists were focused
towards the goal of transforming not only South Australians but the rest of the nation into
more moral law abiding, ethical persons; by raising the age of sexual consent, promoting
temperance from alcoholic drink, trying to prevent them from wasting money in
gambling, and also by maintaining a constant Sunday vigil at church. Also, Methodists
were strongly counselled to consistently vote at elections "as a solemn trust" (to the
church) to enable present and future religious majority leadership in Parliament, to thus
continue furthering their moral and ethical ideals on education/public morality within the
Australian locality.
In Victoria, Protestant's began following suite with the Catholics, on trying to change
people's moral understandings. A major conflict was the growing debate over ditching
previous Sabbatarian laws. One such example can be seen by the debate over whether or
not the Melbourne Public Library, the Technological Museum and the National Art
Gallery should be allowed to be open on Sundays. The conflict ended when the Protestant
Christians were able to keep the library, gallery and museum closed on Sundays, as well
as, into the next century (i.e. 1900's).
However, for evangelical moral reformist denominations such as the Protestant and
Catholic denomination's their Temperance movements were limited to the amount of
support they could ultimately gain from the average citizen, and they were basically
stopped in their tracks through protesting from; the brewers of the alcohol and hostel
owners who issued alcohol on their premises.
The majority of Church denominations had found it even harder to stop, the erosion of
Sabbath, the holy day of the week i.e. Sunday; where by all business activities would stop
and be put aside for the remembrance of Christ. By 1880, a growing majority of Sydneysider's, and the rest of other Australians, were using Sunday as a day of rest and play, not
exactly what churches would have had in mind. Events in Australian history that present
the growing transformation back from religious ideals and morals are when; the
"Evangelical Protestants were unable to persuade Parliament to abolish a motion passed
1878 to open the public library and museum on Sunday afternoons and also when the
new government headed by high Anglican Church man, Alexander Stuart, seemingly
resisted further evangelical pressure to ban Sunday afternoon concerts; as he assured to
his and other Christian denominations, that, they were out of sink with overwhelming
public opinion.
One can see, that although Christianity had played a quite significant role in exerting its
own authority and influence, their overall significance was decreasing when it came to
public morality, heading towards the pre-federation years of the 1900's. Towards the late
1800's public morality was becoming of less importance in comparison to the early
1800's, as Australians became more prepared for rapid change. Despite this, Christianity
still had a major influence on morality because Christian leaders had gained high status in
society and thus could still resume its unrelenting pressure on the people of Australian
society, by for example; enforce rules and regulations that all must abide by. Also, on the
other hand Christian based education hasn't seemed to be depleting its influence within
the Australian society, infact one could say that it actually is growing, with an almost
endless stream of new primary, secondary and even tertiary based universities within
Sydney today, that had grown ever larger from the early 1800's onwards, which
ultimately influence our train of thought and moral standings on issues within our society.
Bibliography:
§Austin, A. G. 1972. Australian Education 1788-1900, Pitman, Melbourne
§Austin, A. G. 1972. Select Documents in Australian Education 1788-1900, Pitman, and
Melbourne.
§Hogan, M. 1987. The Sectarian Strand - Religion in Australian History, Penguin,
Harmondsworth.
§www.Planetpapers.com
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