---
title: 'Dabney Contra the Public School System'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2025-05-24
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2025-dabney-contra-the-public-school-system
---

# Dabney Contra the Public School System

“There can be, therefore, no true education without moral culture, and no true moral culture without Christianity. The very power of the teacher in the school-room is either moral or it is a degrading, brute force. But he can show the child no other moral basis for it than the Bible. Hence my argument is as perfect as clear. The teacher must be a Christian. But the American Commonwealth has promised to have no religious character. Then it cannot be teacher.” — [**Robert L. Dabney**](/authors/robert-lewis-dabney), “The State Free School System,” in *Discussions*, 4:222–23.