STATE EDUCATION.

Evening Star, Issue 3613, 21 September 1874, Page 2

STATE EDUCATION.

To the Editor. Siz, —Your leader of aturday refers particularly to the High School controversy. I do not desire to express any opinion concern ing that institutio i ; but there are certain general remarks iu your editorial whose tone L very strong'y deprecate. Will you allow me space to direct the attention of your readers to another view cf the subj-ct of private tuition and the educational duties of the tate? In the first place you say “indivi dual effort has hitherto produc d most unsatisfactory results.” Again, you say “Is it not possible that, all th ugs considered, the education of the young may be betteconducted by the people as a body than by the people as individuals!” and, as I cannot help thinking rather weakly, place protection to life and property in the same category with education.

first, of the latter extract, I agree with you as to rudimentary instruction, which (t-» be precise) 1 take to mean just that modicum of education which places a poor child who a.ten a school on a high rpUtform than the homeless gamin -the three K’a in short. That the State should supply this is expedient ; but that the State shou d attempt to control the education of any but the poorest, I cannot regard as just or bane field, for several reasons. While the State supports a hospital, and pays an official to set bones and heal sores there. I ought not to find myself in the perdieameut of being obliged to seek relief at the hospital because the Government sees fit to close every aventie against private practitioners by subsidising a number of surgeons And in scholastic matters it will soon be found that the quaii v of the article education, as well as the dispensers th reof, will deteriorate. To healthy co npetit on will succeed “dull routine”: the teicher will become (us indeed he has in many cases already become) a mere red-tape servant, a great hand at documentary work, so accurately measured and so mathematically adjusted as to time and duties, that the man u transformed into a machine. This may do very well for most occupations, but certainly for the scholastic it wi l not succeed. he variety of temperament among pupils, the difference of opinion on every subject taught prevailing among teachers, render ab.-oiutely necessary a certain degree of individuality in a teacher. That individuality is blighted by routine, and utterly crashed by inspection. Why the Wtago Government should allow competition to go on in the soft goods line, or rival boot factories to start in the same town, while it carefully shuts out private teachers {rum making a living, is one cf the “ inserutables.”

Now, when you speak of the inefficacy of individual effort, either your experience is very limited in such matters, or you tatk so “for diplomatic reasons.” The mass is composed of individuals, and all you can do i" to assimilate these into a “system.” Why not let each pursue his own way, and trust to public opinion to very soon discover the best man I No ; I maintain that the most desirable men, as a rule, will not accept office to endure the restrictioas of a Board, the petty tyranny of a Committee, and sometimes the snobbishness of an Inspector, while any other calling is open to them. In fact, the life of a Government schoolmaster is generally regarded by most men whose personal bearing as gentlemen (as well as their attainments) fit them for the duties of a school, with the utmost aversion. The verdict of parents may be taken In one particular: they" very' numerously declare that, in Government schools, while the instruction is to a certain extent good, the children beccme utterly “ beyond redemption” in manners.

Gather a dozen “ brats” in Dunedin, haphazard, and judge for yourself. >ome thing of this is due in this community to the peculiarity of the Scotch character, upon which education has not the slightest softening influence. But now that the Board of Advice is anxiously gathered round the cadaverous form of the poor High School, ’twere rude to disturb the stillness. Let it go and give place to better things.—l am, &c ,

n j 0., “Un Qoi flrr.” Dunedin, September 19.