SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 275, 12 April 1913, Page 3

SCHOOL MANAGEMENT.

(To tin; J'.iliui;-.) Sir,—ln a school not a hundred miles from New Plymouth. there arc a few items that, to say the least, are mismanaged. (1) Tlie method of teaching spelling is very peculiar. .Several paragraphs of the reading lesson are given mill every word of four letter's and upwards is underlined for the children to learn at home. The books, therefore, present u very untidy appearance. (2) On cold, wintry, wiiuiy days (last Monday for instance) no fire is lighted, even though some of the poor little scholars have to walk two miles to school in "bitter weather. (3) A young person is supposedly employed to daily sweep ■tliii school-rooms, and yet it sometimes happens that three or four of the older girls are kept to do what that persow is paid for doing. For both'of the two last complaints the School Committee is responsible, and 1 hope they will take the hint and see to it that the money spent for school firewood and for cleaning the room is not wasted. Now for the spelling. My household is a busy one, and the boys as well as the mother and father, must away to the milking .shed ass soon as the children are home from school. The only little girl must tend the fire, set the tea, gather kindling, and mind the baby while the rest are milking. Then when tea is over, and cleared away, and the babies are in bed, comes spelling: "Nearly eight o'clock! Come, children, it's bed-time," says father. "I must learn my spelling, or T'll get the strap to-morrow," is the cry of tinv tots, who certainly oneht to he in hed. For ha!f-an-hour the tired mother and more tired children worry over those spellings and the father, who wants a little peace and quietness, wonders what the teacher* are paid for wlrn his wife has to do the tenchinsr it home. Now. Mr. Editor, I hope nil Hie mothers of the Dominion, especially those who live in the eo'intvv. will absolutely forbid home-work of anv kind, be it oral or written, for on the farm. nnr«nts nnd children have quite enough work without do'ii':' what should be ilnne at school. Fewer words and n riiiirtor-of-fin-hour's class work at ■"ohonl would be fur more effective than tlie present, method.—Vo-ir*. off..

AV tydTOKAXT MOTHErI April 10th. 1913.