COLLEGE HOLIDAYS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4908, 14 December 1876, Page 4

COLLEGE HOLIDAYS.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib,—l observe a statement in your report of the meeting ,of i College Governors, to the effect that the Mayor’s I motion, as to an alteratiop. in the dates of the holidays, was hot proceeded with.. : Will you permit me’to say, as your reporter happened to he absent, that my reason for adopting ■ this course arose simply from a desire to save time. :; The opinion of ■the other governors having been' so unequivocally expressed' against my proposal at a previous meeting, further discussion just now would be absolutely useless. I may,’ however, record my conviction: that,-, sooner or later, it will be necessary to revert to a more’commonsense system than that-which obtains at present.- . .i "■ s;

.What is the present system ? 'l'find that the College has three equal terms of thirteen to fourteen weeks’ duration each, t amountingto about forty weeks’ work: in’the whole year, reduced somewhat further by occasional and rather numerous holidays. My contention is that, considering the age -of the boys, this arrangement involves a very considerable waste of time—waste at that period of lifewhen .it should be most carefully guarded against. There is a healthy incapacity for severe study among ordinary ■ boys, and these-lengthened vacations, gratify that incapacity greatly more than there is any need for. The aim of those entrusted ’with .education, as it seems to me, should be to have - bur i boys as thoroughly trained 1 and taught: as .possible during the few years they will be. permitted to : remain at school, that they may be as fully equipped as the circumstances of i the colony will permit for the active duties of life. ■ : -

: Some of the govemorswill persist In fancying, because they call this institution a college, and’because they have contrived to get an endowment for it,: that it must be’different from any other grammar school in‘the city, which it is hot; but until we get rid of this notion/ the needed improvement can hardly be expected, although, like other reforms, I should hope it only requires time and patience to bring it about.—l am, &c., . . William Hutchison. December 12. ■ • '