To do so, Wilkins (1865, p. 7) develops both a theory of the state and a
definition of religion. It is a very democratic theory of the state as‘the
embodiment of the will of thewholepeople’, which can only be‘entrusted
to such objects only as are of universal benefit, so thatallmayalikeparticipate
in the advantages arising from public expenditure’. It must have a‘civil
character’and it‘cannot rightly interfere with matters of opinion which do
not directly affect the obedience of citizens to the law’. Wilkins defines
religion to mean the‘attitude of the soul toward the Divine Ruler of the
Universe’.
On this basis Wilkins develops two arguments. Thefirst is that it is infringe-
ment of freedom of opinion and the civil nature of public education for the
state to subsidize the teaching of the religion of particular denominations. If
the state was required‘to provide the special religious teaching of each
denomination, and to establish separate schools for that purpose’:
The resources derived fromallwould be applied to the purposes of a portion of the
citizens; equal rights would not be afforded to all; schools would cease to be civil
institutions; and the State would become the agent for the promotion and repres-
sion of opinion among its subjects. (Wilkins 1865, p. 3)The second argument is that the schoolmaster should have nothing to do with
the teaching of dogmatic theology because a‘religious education for children
does not of necessity imply any acquaintance with dogmatic theology’
(Wilkins 1865, p. 4). Wilkins was quite hostile to teaching dogma, and such
things as catechisms, to primary school students, arguing that it involved
them in simply learning words which they could not properly understand.
His crucial argument is that it is possible to divide religion into a number of
elements, of which dogma, or doctrine, is but one; the common element can
be taught to all schoolchildren, doctrines peculiar to particular denominations
can be left to those denominations.
It is a wonderfully elegant solution to a problem, if you were a cultural
Protestant who could countenance your children reading the Bible in the King
James Version without priestly supervision. However, there were other
motives at work in support of a state-based education system. In NSW, the
introduction of state secular schooling occurred in two stages, both involving
Henry Parkes. The 1866 Act established state schools but kept funding for
denominational schools. The 1880 Act abolished state funding for denomin-
ational schools. Introducing his Public Schools Bill in 1866, Henry Parkes
(1876, p. 235) referred also to the fact‘that education thus carried on is
unnecessarily expensive’, the quality of the education, and the need to reach
all students, as well as the fact‘that the present method is calculated to
engender jealousies and uncharitable feelings among the different sections
of society’. State funding of denominational schools was doomed because it
Greg Melleuish and Stephen A. Chavura