The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3514, 28 May 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, MAY 28, 1874

The Council Las again affirmed the principle that the State should take charge of the whole of the education of the people, and not confine its attention to certain parts of it only. So far it has done well. While giving Mr Fish and his supporters every credit for sincerely believing that the part they took in the late discussion on the High School was the right one, we cannot but feel that if the motion for tht abolition of the High School had been carried, a great blow would have been given to the interests of education in

tliis Province. But, though it is certain that the abolition of this institution would prove to be a great misfortune, it is equally certain that very great changes must be made in many of the details connected with the School before it can be said to be in a satisfactory condition. It is one thing to say that the School ought not to be abolished ; it is a very different thing to say that it is all that could be wished. The speakers in last Tuesday’s debate were almost unanimous in saying that the School had not done all that such an institution might be fairly expected to accomplish. It appears then that the Council have still to do the most important part of their duty with regard to this matter. They have still to determine by what means the School can be made to do its legitimate work. The first thing to be decided, as it seems to us, is what is to be considered its legitimare work. Mr Eish says that the classics are made too important a part of the curriculum; Mr Stout believes that Mr Hawthorne may have gone too far in the direction of popularising the School by devoting too little attention to the classics and too much to other subjects. How, it can hardly be doubted that the opinions of each of these gentlemen represent, on this part of the question at least, those of a large section of the public. There are the classicists on the one side saying to the Rector of the High School, “ Give our boys more Latin and Greek, and, above all things, make them learn their grammars so thoroughly that it shall be impossible for them to make a mistake.” On the other side are those who, for want of a better name, may be called commercialists. These do not believe in Latin at all; they say that what boys in the Colony want is a sound English education. We should like to know how the Rector can act in a case like this, without producing results that will be unsatisfactory to one party, or perhaps to both. If he avoids the Scylla of the classicists, he gets foul of the Charybdis of the commercialists ; if he succeeds in steering exactly between the two parties, he pleases neither. It is certain, then, that it ought to be distinctly decided whether the High School is to be a Classical School, a Commercial School, or, what wc should prefer to either, a “ modem” school, in which only enough Latin should be taught to enable pupils of the school to enter the University—their attention being chiefly directed to elementary mathematics, English, modern languages, and physical science. We may remark, by-the-bye, that if this latter plan were adopted the unavoidable competition between the higher forms of the school and the lower classes of the University would be reduced to a minimum. Then, again, there is the fact so forcibly alluded to by Mr Reid that the High School is constantly made a “ bone of contention” in the Council. As Mr Reid put it—“Ho wonder the High School was not a success, when it was made the subject of such discussions as had just taken place, and as had taken place last session.” It is above all things necessary, in order that a school should be successful, that it should not have its discipline endangered by extraneous causes. To manage a school satisfactorily is at all times a sufficiently arduous task—to do it when its very existence is altogether precarious, is an impossible one. We would again call the attention of the members of the Council to the urgent need which exists for the appointment of a committee to consider the report of the late High School Commission, and to decide on the best means to be adopted in order that the High School may b$ placed on a proper footing. Our readers will see that in the above remarks we have n?ade no reference to a thoroughly disingenuous article which appears in this morning’s ‘ Daily Times.’ The fact is that the article in question shows so evidently that its writer is driven to make the remarks he does, only through impotent spite, baffled malice, and a desire to advertise a pew school, that he requires no further notice from us.