Newspapers as Class Books.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 181, 29 April 1873, Page 7

Newspapers as Class Books.

( Timaru Herald.) What our colonial youth learn is learned in the school-room entirely, and with this knowledge before us, we point out a "classbook" which might well be added to the schoolmaster's repertoire, —the newspaper. Ephemeral as the newspaper undoubtedly is, with its news fresh to-day and stale tomorrow, still it is the only running history of the times in which we live. Though it is much the fashion with blase newspaper readers to decry the morning sheet with a •' Pshaw, there's nothing in the paper," if its columns haply do not contain that which is sensational, or anything particularly interesting to the reader personally, yet a newspaper must be badly got up indeed if there is not found in it much that is interesting, instructive, and novel. In A merica, that country of newspapers and light literature, the newspaper is introduced into schools with marked success, and we are pleased to see that the system is finding advocates on this side the l'ne. Mr Pearse, head master of one of the Government schools at Buninyong, in Victoria, has recently addressed a circular to the parents and guardians of children attending his school, in which he thus sets forth the value of newspapers as a means of education : "We have to do with many children whose whole stock of information is acquired in the school, their home training being of no assistance whatever. The only books read are those of the school, which contain, as a glance through the fourth and fifth form books will show, difficult lessons on Political Economy, Wonders of Science, .Subjugation of the Powers of Nature, and copious extracts from the English classics—Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Addison, &c. Parents need not wonder therefore that pupils in the higher classes occasionally fail in reading, foe what is read must be thoroughly understood. More extensive reading is requirtd. We find that those of our elder pupils who are accustomed to read a newspaper, are in point of general intelligence vastly superior to their less fortunate cl iss-mates. Linked as we are by elictric telegraph to the whole civilised world, one is inclined to wonder that any family should be without a paper, especially now that the cost is so little." The above extract will commend itself to the attention of all men who desire to see the adoption of a more liberal and a more diversified system of education than at present obtains in our common schools. The schoolmaster, for the most part, never dreams of going beyond the four corners ofj the class book, and there are some no doubt so wedded to the old system of teaching, that they would consider it heterodox to supplement that system by any means whatever; again, there are some others—and among them we believe is to be found the head master of the Timaru public school —possessing sufficient elasticity and liberality of mind to graft fr< sh buds on the old stock. Tho newspaper, to our thinking, should be found in every schooi-room. The Press being of "no religion," stands on a platform where the Catholic and Protestant, Wesley an and Presbyterian, can come together without fear of clashing one with another. By saying the Press has "no religion," we mean to infer that with the exception of certain class journals, the columns of newspapers are generally closed against religious disputations, and in the matter of news all sects and denominations are treated alike ; yet for the most part the Press of New Zealand, is, we think, distinguished by its high moral tone, and by a general absence of that language which seeks under cover of moral teaching to instil a subtle poism. The introduction of newspapers into school shod t have the effect of lightering for an hour or so the dull routine of the schoolroom, and tin diversified character of the news contained in the average newspaper, would be far more eagerly sought after by the youngsters, than Roman History or a lesson on the Geography of the White Sea. Moreover such reading giving a taste for instructive reading and enquiry, would be conducive to good, and bring the boy to take an intelligent interest in matters of everyday occurrence.