MR. FAWCETT ON COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4416, 15 May 1875, Page 3

MR. FAWCETT ON COMPULSORY EDUCATION.

The remarks on educational difficulties made by Mr. Eawcett at Bethnal-green well deserve attention. He hardly did himself justice when he simply proclaimed his preference for “undenominational ’’ schools. It is characteristic of the fairness and breadth of his mind that, notwithstanding his sentiments in that direction, he always refused to make the 25th clause a ground of controversy, and looked at the whole question from an educational rather than a sectarian point of view. He hit a big blot in our present plans when he showed the rarity of School Boards in rural parishes—that is, the absence of legal means of compulsion. We regret this, too, hut the evil partly arises from the defect of the Act. A School Board has three functions—it can levy rates, it can build schools, it can enforce attendance; but the fact that in many localities the Education Act has not been adopted arises, not from any objection to compulsion, but from the fear of some ratepayers and clergymen that a School Board once elected may levy unnecessary taxes and build unrequired schools. So we lose the advantages of compulsion, because no body but a board can put it in force. Might it not be possible to devise some system by which a nominated, or partly nominated, Icoal board could employ compulsion, without wielding the two other privileges of levying rates or building new schools ? There are many parishes where the wealth and zeal of squires, local clergymen and ministers have provided ample accommodation, and where nothing is wanting for educational success but some legal power to compel attendance; in such cases a School Board, “limited,” as we suggest, would be of considerable use. We are glad also that Mr. Fawcett called attention to the very low standard of schooling required in the agricultural districts by the new Act. Children employed in textile factories must attend school till they are fourteen, unless at thirteen they can pass a certain standard ; while the laborer’s son is released at eleven years without • any , examination, even though during the previous year he has been at school only 150 times. It may be said, and with truth, that it is no harm to a child to be employed' oiif'bf doors at eleven, while factory work at an early age is injurious to health ; but it is also true that children in the country 'require superior instruction;' The town child acquires much knowledge of life from sights around him the' country child requires a sharper stimulus. Mr. Fawcett contended with fervor, that if, we say, “ Oh! the agricultural laborers are so poor that they cannot afford to Keep their children at school,” we simply declare that, “in order to enable them to live, their children’s minds must be sacrificed to premature toil.” In reference _to the whole subject, he touched 'on the objection that in the present day .we have “too many clerks.”, He admitted this truth, and urged that ’educated boys' should turn their attention to skilled handicraftsthese are not glutted, and all teaching comes ussfidly to the intelligent artisan. He said, that the preference for clerkship was a blunder for which society was partly responsible. “ There is that unfortunate social prejudice which makes people think ‘ that the inhabitants of this country are divided into fixed social grades, and that if a. man gets his living by some trade, however skilled may be his labor, however artistic may he his taste, however intellectual may be his pursuits, he must necessarily occupy an inferior social position.” It certainly seems absurd that society should consider mem copying “gentlemanly” work, while artistic woodcarving is not, and the time will come when the positions will probably be reversed. _ But meanwhile we cannot admit that the utility of education is to, he measured, by its moneys worth in after life. .A youth who has learned to read and enjoy books has .within him cheap; sources of delight and possibilities of intellectual advancement likely to be. cliepririg and useful, whatever be his calling or craft.