School Attendance in Europe. Another of Babel.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 178, 13 November 1886, Page 3

School Attendance in Europe.

Another of Babel.

The •' law " on echool attendance is very severe in the countries vieited by Mr Arnold. Take the case of Saxony, which is very fully set out in his report. There a child haß to attend the popular school uninterruptedly from cix years old to fourteen, and is only allowed to he educated elsewhere on its being shown that he will there lose nothing either in the quality of the education he receives or in the time during which he has to be under instruc tion. He undergoes one examination a year ; but no success at the annual ex amination will release him from the examination for his "certificate of discharge " at the end of his school couree ; but if a child in his toiwteenth year at bis latest examinations has gained the mark cf " satisfactory," and there is urgent reasot. for his withdrawal — but the parent wanting his child to go to work is not recognised as an *' urgent" cape — provi&iun is made for releasing bim, Ordinarily, however, he can only be .released by passing the final examination at the clobe of his fourteenth year ; and if he fails in this he must attend school yet another year. The school holidays nominally amount to only tortyfour days, but, they otten extend in Germany and Switzeciand to ten and even twelve weeks ; aud, adds Mr Arnold, " it is wholesome and, right that this bhould be so ; few people would be di^poped to find fault with it." When the schools are open the only excuses fur absonce which are allowed are, seemingly, the illness of the child or serious illness in the child'? family. And the fine inflicted for contumaciously keeping a child at home may run up to as high as 30e. These axe the regulations ; how are they observed ? Inspectors and teachers .report that as a whol9 children are sent to school regularly. An examination of the school register shows, too, that vety few absences are contumacious The children in Germany and Switzerland — especially in the country parts — have acquired the " habit of coming to school as a matter of course, and the parents have the habit of acquiescing, as a matter of course, in their children's going " But magistrates are complained of on the Continent as well as in England for being too lenient ; and one magistrate on being askad what he would do if a parent tried to excuse his^hild'3 absence from school by saying he was too poor to do without his labour, replied, "I .would remain silent " It i? added, however, that in that gentleman's village there has been no need to summon for n on -attend - dance for the , last ten yoars. The attendance in the great. centres of population (as in England) falls below the average ; and in Berlin, which has about 135,000 children at' school, penalties for irregular attendance w^re inflicted en nearly "1,200 heads of .families during the year 1883 — and this, too, ,in a .city where all , echool fees have long remitted ! In France the, children have not yet; got into the habit of regular attendance ; andtheyattend fai; worse than in Germany, and ' tliis, notwithstanding thati'a child may 'get three months' leave a, year in addition to the holidays, and in base's 'be followed to attend only half-time,

Tj»^ 'THiifidea Directing 1 a"inetaT tow-jar l'^ feet (the, ocqasion ,pf a, great International Exhibition^ifc appeare,-ip really Stoftfcf carriedfont., ba.ericted at the *entn>nee of tho Chuitaps delMarB,,ab a monument of human foliy and tbadrtaste, a gi■sjantio tower not much* less--.than one thou fcanrt ifeet high, ofnmefal; >fjThe tower is to rest on enormous arches 164 feet wide, under which will pass the entrance to tho interior of.the exhibition. What is the)propriety of ,making a tow.er of Babel the portalto an exhibition? T,he fact. i« that this tower is a piece of.downright stupidity. It will shock every eye, intercepc/views, • destroy the ef- • fectB of perspective, thrust its hopelessly monotonous lines before every one who tries to obtain sothe ideja of the 'general effect of the exhibition. It threatens to bring'ridi cule upon tho whole undertaking. Your readers should know that this ideß of a ♦ower 1,000 feet high to celebrate the anniversary of a great revolution and the gathering together of the products of the world beionga only to a small number of French men who are perfectly well aware that theiriidea is stupid and in bad taste, bit who have too deep an interest in it not to make every possible effort to carry out the scheme, even although its realisation would make France the laughing-stock of the world for a whole generation. Of the height of Brbel we have no record, but St. Paul's measures 404 feet, and St Peter'?, ftome, 432 feet. Measured against these paltry standards, the supereminence of the Parisian tower will be simply crush ing. Even Yankees, who are generally considered to possess a monopoly in big things, must coulees that this big tower is too big for them. In all ages the building of lofty ,towers has, rightly or wrongly, been associated with folly, and sometimes has been followed by retributioH. The Tower of Babel was the occasion of the breaking up of 'a people. The tower which Beckford built at Fonthill Abbey fell miserably. The Champ de Mare tower cannot fail to be hideous, for it is condemned by the essential conditions of the undertaking to be a compromise between a beanstalk and a semaphore. Its lankiness must be utterly disproportionate to the rest of the exhibition structure It can hardly be put to any practical use. The nearest approach to use which our limited ingenuity nutrerestp i=i that it should be crowned by a colossal statue of General Boulanger ; and that on the anniversary of the Republic Pircher, the celebrated Viennese steeple-jack, should (by the kind permission of the Emperor of Austria) climb from the base to the summit, and either envelop the General with the tricolour or crown him with an Imperial wreath as circumetances may require. That would be a spectacle worth seeing. The heightof St Stephon'n, Vienna, which Pircher ascended the other day, is only 432 German feet, ao that OS-i feet might po?sibly "extend" Pircher, and put a little moie spirit into tho affair But such a perform ance, however interesting, would hnrdly by itself justify tho election of this " monument of folly and b»,d taste." Nor would it, accordinsr tq Fngli^h ideas, justify the expenditure of 5,000 000 francs, which is to be the cost of the tower.