LITTLE AKALOA SCHOOL, &c.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VII, Issue 676, 5 January 1883, Page 3

LITTLE AKALOA SCHOOL, &c.

To the Editor. Sib, —I promised in my last to continue ray reply to John Hunter's stacks on me re Little Akaloa affairs. Lalluded to one fertile cause of tlie failure' of children to pass in their respective standards—irregularity of attendance. This I honestly believe to be the reason why most of those who fail do so This cause prevents success not only in school, but in all kinds of work. No parent, unless he were a man " beside himself," would expect hia child.to learn a trade or profession if he only devoted one-half of bis time to it. Now, in many cases—notably in those I mentioned —many children were away at least onethird of their lime. Now, consider what this one-third of school time really means. It implies an absence from school for more tthan 147 times out of a possible 442 at■tendances. The miechief would not be so great if this absence occurred all at one season ; even then it would be detrimental to a child's progress, but when the absence •is scattered —a week now, two days in one week, three in another,, nnd so on —the mischief done to the child's education is irreparable. I say nothing of the disheartening effect it has on the teacher, though I, in common with every master of a rural school, have suffered very much from it. The fact is, no real progress can be made unless the attendance is regular. Dropping water -will wear away »• stone, and, for just the same reason, the regular reiteration and explanation of school lesions is certain to cause a very large portion of such lessons to be retained in the child's memory, that is, unless the child be ex ceptionally dull or the teacher unusually incompetent. This I have always maintained to be the case, and every trained .teacher knows how true it is. Now, given this regularity of attendance, it follows, as 1 stated in my last, that those children who :had attended had made satisfactory progress. It would be beside the question for ime here to discuss the means of securing such attendance. Let school committees ■see unto this point, as they are in a position to. do if they choose. But there is this point worthy of being remembered — parents, instead of obstructing the teacher in his work, should try to help him in it. What, then, do you think of a man—and euch an one there is in this Bay—who .asserted that he thought it would be most imprudent to send his daughter, aged 15, to school, because my v/ife was not here ? What a delicate compliment (?) such a man pays to his own child and histtaining of her, and what measure of iniquity does he deal out to the teacher! What can you say of such a man but proh pudor? (You are at liberty, Mr Editor, to translate this small bit of Latin for the benefit of "John Hunter, Seqretary," though I doubt if you ■will take tbs trouble.) I will not further •enlarge on local matters, but will finish with expressing a hope that my successor will neither have a delicate chest (as I have), nor suffer from sluggish liver (as I do), nor suffer as I do sometimes from weak eyes, tlio result of a severe attack of sandy blight in Queensland some time ago. No ; let him be a man of iron constitution, and with the hide of a rhinoceros, lest he suffer for his infirmities by being said to be " drunk again." or with " having been ■drinking. ,. Such was my case. How ■charitable, too. was it not ? But I notice that as a rule these judgments tome most frequently from a class of men who, when they were drunkards, and in an unenviable state from drink, trj to climb trees and do other mad things, clad only in that garment which man generally takes off last. Such

men as these sometimes become what is called reformed drunkards, and consider themselves the fittest persons to sit in judgment on those who do not get drunk at all. I say again, jprohpudor. One word in conclusion. I might and could say something as to the reports themselves, but this would be treading on official ground, which is best avoided. Meantime, if " John Hunter, Secretary and Treasurer Little Akaloa School Committee," wishes to hear from me again, he must show himself to he capable of displaying better sense than he did in his lucubration of the Bth ult.—Yours, etc., HENRY COX.