The Moral Instruction League, 1897–1919

Abstract

In this chapter Wright investigates the Moral Instruction League (MIL), a leading secularist lobbying group. The MIL campaigned, from 1897 to 1919, for a graduated programme of non-theological moral instruction lessons in schools. It attracted different secularists and also some liberal Christians. But the dominance of Ethical Movement educational proposals and personnel alienated other Christians and some secularists too. Wright shows that the MIL had some influence on national and local educational agendas, partly through compromising its demands to accommodate rather than replace religious instruction lessons. Ultimately, however, the MIL failed to unite either secularists or Christians behind its proposals for teaching based on a universal, human, civic morality in schools.