DISTRICT SCHOOL, TEMUKA

Temuka Leader, Issue 2045, 13 May 1890, Page 2

DISTRICT SCHOOL, TEMUKA

TO THE EDITOR. Sie, —Just a, few words about the high school, and some of the doings of the staff and children. My remarks will be made in the hopes that good may come out of them. First. Homework is to my mind tiresome in the extreme, alike to both parents and children- To the parents for the reason that very little housework of any kind can be got from the children after they come from school, and to the children on account of the number of lessons that are given them to learn for the following day, in many instances occupying as much as three hours of an evening and sometimes more. Result of non-compliance with the mandate is a short march to the porch and so many strokes of the strap. It matters not whether it is the fault of parent or child that the

looßuuß are unlearned, tne master must have his orders carried out. Query! does the Education Act enforce this heavy work, or is it at the option of the teaching staff, or are the teachers on pins and needles, fearing lest there may not be a good examination and thus imperil their salaries, the effect on many children of this overwork being sickness in various ways. Secondly, Is drilling a part of the curriculum, and is it to be carried out in or after school hours. Sir, X see no earthly good to come from it, and another thing I fail to see why boys should be compelled to > handle a carbine or made to drill if they have no inclination to do so, or are physically unable. Time enough to play soldiers when they have left school, and not waste the time of teacher and child in the very few hours the teacher has to earn his wages in. Thirdly. Playing, ah 1 that s the fun to know how to play. How much smoother, easier and sweeter the indoor work would be if the teachers would come down off their high pedestals, and have a good game with the youngsters, and teach

them how to play, and thus be a means of stopping the fearful habit of swearing, stone-throwing, fighting, and wrestling. There has been teachers at the school who took a lively interest in the instruction of the youth in all sorts of healthy recreation and manly games, and who were highly respected by both parents and children for so doing. [Fourthly. Holidays: I understand from members of committee that they seldom know when holidays are going to be, for how long a time, and who grants them, (I wonder if the Hew Zealand taxpayers as a body acquiesce in the number of holidays given to their learned servants. I suppose the leetle pay goes on as 1 usual?) To my mind the children have far too many holidays and too much homework, and are rushed through the standards too hastily. Let the headmaster devote more time

to the standards, and nob so much to the few secondary pupil*, and I am sure he will gain the approbation of the majority of householders of tho district, I don’t see that the 6th standard boy is one wit better fitted to enter life now than the boys of 30 years ago were who attended the national schools of the Old Country and paid a penny a week for their education. The fact is, Sir, the Education Act wants thoroughly remodelling in such a way that better results may be obtained for the enormous sum of money expended on it. The whole system is brimful of cram and needless haste. Better for a child to be two years in a standard and learn his subject thoroughly than to be made to gallop through them in a

“ uu uui y sam a very superficial idea of what is needed. But there! I may as well stop this, for however much people may grumble about the school there are but few will take up the matter and say anything about it. —X am, etc., Pofiunirs.