EDUCATION!

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 840, 11 June 1910, Page 10

EDUCATION!

Sir,-Tho writer would call youi attention to the amazing indifference of A'ew Zealand parents to the stuif that is poured into the minds of their littlo cmuiren at the most impressionable age. Take the second primer used in tho schools, and just read tho trash that is ollcred to thein. Great A is supposed to talk to little A, big 15 holds forth to littlo i), etc., weli the children themselves say.: "Isn't is silly, kiddish, mother?" One boy said, "Oil, it's • just A lot of lies they tell the kids." js'o intelligent child can find amusement in thut sort of preposterous rubbish, and there certainly ■is no information, while the great world teems with interesting novelties and wonders to sell ihem about,:

But there is a far graver objection to the later lessons of this book. jy,l civilised peoples, whether their form of belief be. Protestant, liomaii Catholic-,' Jewish, or even free-thinker, are agreed to acknowledge One mighty power that produces and guides the forces of the Universe; but in this first book for our children is revived the old false beliefs of Greece and Rome. They are taught that there is a god of the wind and of tho sun, they learn that tho One sacred Namo may bo spelt with a small letter, and applied promiscuously. In fact, tho errors of ignorant native tribes (for whose enlightenment we lavish money and valuable lives), are being taught to our .owil babies,—and who shall undo the mischief in later years?—l am, etc., VERY MUCH SHOCKED.