A SERIOUS CALL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 253, 25 April 1912, Page 8

A SERIOUS CALL.

SOME OBSTACLES TO EDUCATION. (PREVAILING PLEASURES ATTACKED "Picture shows and pernicious literature," was the text of a forceful homily embodied by the headmaster of the Wellington South school (iMv. (1. Flux), in a report presented on Monday to the annual meeting of householders in the school district. "There aro several matters more e» less directly affecting the interests of pupils," wrote Mr. Flux, ''which I am anxious to bring before the meeting. I do not imagine that all present will agree with what I say, but I would ask you to be good enough to believe that it will be an honest expression of belief, founded upon a long experience. Thos* present must have noticed what a large number of boys iu this city have been brought before' the Juvenile Court during the past few months. Now, while I do not for one moment think that th<* schools aro responsible for this, the minds of teachers with a right sense of duty cannot but be exercised to try to find out the cause. It has been said that city life becomes every year more and more complex, and. that therefore the responsibilities of city parents especially are constantly increasing, and there is ground for the fear that many of them do not rise to their responsibilities; that in too many cases the street, very often late at night, is allowed to claim the children. THE PICTURE SHOW. I ''The advent of and the increase in the number of picture shows is responsible ) for some of thi*. Even the churches, 1 with the best intentions, no doubt, but j mistakenly, I believe, bring children out i at night, and not seldom without proper ; guardians. A mother, who sent her children to a church meeting, was shock- ) ed to find that instead they had been to ) a picture show. Instances of children > preferring money, in order to be able to attend these shows, are not unknown to me. The mania for this class of entertainment seems to possess children and adults alike. AH, especially the young, need recreation, but when it beI conies a habit it .ceases to' be recreation in the true sense. I have ascertained by i questioning that a number of ehildren attend picture shows as many as three ) times a week: many more attend them !» twice. A good many parents, it is to ) be feared, solace themselves with the - notion that many of the pictures are instructive. No doubt the subject of the pictures often is, but what permanent impression of any real value is left on the minds of children by the rapid passing before the eye of hundreds of yards of these pictures at one sitting? They impress the eye for a moment, the mind scarcely at all, except to befog it. A I picture show that relied upon the socalled educative film for the whole of its entertainment would die within a month. Then what is the attraction that draws crowds every night iu th» week? Let those who are constant patrons of these shows answer the question. As for the educative element in them, I may say that it is quite a common occurrence for pupils to eay, when 1 under instruction, 'I read about that in such and such a book,' but I cannot remember a pupil saying, 'I saw that illus- , trated at a picture show.' THE LACK OF GOOD TASTE. "We hear a good deal about the lack of good taste for art among New Zealanders. I honestly believe that if there is one thing more than another calculated to kill the taste for what is beautiful, the picture show is that thing. lam sure of this, that the picture show has rendered the work of teaching infinitely mora difficult because it has created a distaste for anything solid, and a corresponding craving for what is ephemeral I and evanesceat. i "Then there is the question of litera- ) ture. In these days, when books are so cheap, and public libraries so welt stocked with good reading matter, it is intensely disappointing to thoughtful teachers that this is commonly passed over for the sake of the rubbishy, vulgar stuff one so often sees in the hands of children. "In the playground the other day I found three or four boys on their hands and knees intensely poring over eome paper laid upon the ground. My curiosity led me to enquire what engaged them. I found it was a paper sucE'as I have described, and I wondered whether the parents of the lads know that their boys purchased such stuff. I could wish that all booksellers would join hands with teachers by ceasing to stock the rubbish. The question of us teachers is, how are we to eradicate the taste for low and : vulgar reading? Most of our schools possess libraries, although often indifferently supported, but there is evidence that they are not having the effect thart they were intended to have. We teach the mechanical part of reading in school* and take some pains to create in our pupils a taste for decent literature. Then why do we find in so many cases a teste in the opposite direction? Have parents nothing to say to this? Do they always supervise their children's reading? Beading of some kind the children must and will have, and it is the bounden duty ©f every parent among us to take such steps as shall give our boys and girls a, bent_ in the right direction, not by forbidding all reading, but by encouraging the right kind of reading." The supply of free books should help in this direction, but will not have; the effect it 1 should have until we obtaind such a revision of the syllabus as will allow mora time for reading. About this matter of questionable literature we need an awakened public conscience, and teachers, whose voices should be more often heard in the land, should take their share in awakening it." Owing, seemingly, to a misunderstanding, the report was not discussed by the householders to whom it was read. The motion for its adoption was put by the chairman, and carried immediately. One householder suggested, however, that Mr. Flux's reference to the churches shoald be brought under the notice of the Ministers' Association.