The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1877.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 55, 26 January 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, JANUARY 26, 1877.

The next phase of the Education question which we propose to consider, is that which presents itself in our Public Schools. We have already treated on the home training of a child, regarding it as a foundation laid by the parents, upon which it is intended a superstruc • ture shall be raised by others. The system of education which prevails in the public schools of Canterbury is usually known as the secular system. The term is, however, a misnomer. A system, which teaches the existence of a supreme first cause, which inculcates the practice of that sublime morality to be found in the pages of the New Testament, cannot be correctly termed a purely secular system, seeing that on the contrary, it contains much of the religious element. Unsectarian would be a better term than secular—inasmuch, as although the grand truths which are received by all, as forming the primary principles of religion are taught, yet, the peculiar dogmas which are the distinctive characteristics of the teaching of the various sects, are carefully excluded. The moral training of children is of the utmost importance, and ought to be enforced by example as well as precept. It will be in vain for the teacher to endeavour to impress upon the minds of thn children confided to his care, that lying is a detestable vice, if he himself is guilty of acts of mean and paltry subterfuge ; a child should be taught that it is noble to tell the truth, and that a lie should never under any circumstances be resorted to, even though the telling of it would save the child, who told it from punishment. It should be impressed upon his mind that it is equally as bad to keep back part of the truth so as to convey a false impression as it is to say that which the person knows at the time to be untrue. Evasion of every kind should be discouraged to the uttermost, as also that wretched system of paltry dishonesty, colonially. known under the soubriqu t of " besting ;" acts of wanton 'cruelty and tyranny should meet with the special disapprobation ; a boy, who by his conduct to a younger, and it may ho a less strong child than himself, renders that child's life a burden to him, should-be made to feel in his own person some of that pain which lie has inflicted upon another, whilst he who delights in torturing and destroying birds, animals,,,of insects, should be taught that they nn; beings gifted by the All-wise Creator with an organization and sensibilities peculiarly adapted for the sphere in* which they move, and that to subject them to pain, or to wantonly destroy them for mere sport, is an infringement of those principles which ought to be looked upon as chiefly necessary in carrying on the moral government of the world. The necessity of temperance, whether in eating or drinking, and particularly with regard to the latter, should be strictly enforced. And here again example will be more powerful than precept. It will be of little use a teacher speaking of temperance, even though he were to speak with the tongue of an angel, when a flushed face, unnaturally sparkling eyes, and a somewhat glib utterance, would tell only too truly the source from which lie derived Iris inspiratioji. Children have usually very keen observing powers, and the deductions which they are apt to draw from facts such as those we have alluded to, are often of a most unfavourable character, calculated to lower their teacher in their

estimation, and thus to lesson the influence, which otherwise he would have over them. We think it only necessary to allude to the use of profane or indecent language-, or the committal of acts of palpable, dishonesty, because, asva matter of course, a barr will be put upon these, neither do we think. it well, more than to recommend that a child should be taught to be courteous and kind, ever ready to do all in his power to relieve the sufferings of his fellow creatures, and would conclude with the following teaching by a very high authority, believing that it contains all the moral culture necessary to be given in our public schools—" Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this—To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." .The mental training of children in public schools will form the subject of a future article.