The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1885.
Ik connection with the present system of education- there~are, it is impossible to deny, many drawbacks, and obe of the most serious is that following the competitions which periodically take place in connection with scholarship!. We hare of late noticed bard and fierce struggles on the part of masters of various State schools to raise their averages, scholarship trials and all that kind of thing, and must confess to a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction at the result of our observations. We see nothing but cram, cram, cram, gone through in order to heighten (P) the reputation of master at the expense of the willing and capable scholar. During the last week two deaths of exhibition pupils bare occurred, and hare been—no doubt very justly—attributed to this over-straining; one was of a very promising and clever girl, sixteen years of age, whose death was, we may safely say, caused by the overstraining attendant on the cramming undergone for the purpose of shedding lustre on the teachers; for she, alas! cannot benefit in this world by the educational attainments she mundanely gained. Another scholar died some few days ago from brain fever, resultant on over study. It is time that these things were put a stop to, and that beneficial education took the place of oramming our youth with tricky arithmetical conundrums, useless geographical problems, abstruse algebraical enigmas, uoutilisable mathematical problems, and other matters wh"icn""are" of no" practical benefit to the pupils of the schools supplied or endowed by the state. Immediately after every examination for scholarships, or other tests, a perusal of the daily papers will produce the fact that every possible credit is desired to be taken by the teachers of successful candidates, even going so far back as to their infant class, and each one claims to have a part in the winning of the prize, whatever it may be. To produce the results striven so hard for, there must necessarily be a strain on the mental forces of the pupils, and this is to be severely deprecated. Some change is not only desirable but necessary, and the sooner it is made the better.
Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/THS18850915.2.8
Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka
Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5199, 15 September 1885, Page 2
Word count
Tapeke kupu
368The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1885. Thames Star, Volume XVII, Issue 5199, 15 September 1885, Page 2
Using this item
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
No known copyright (New Zealand)
To the best of the National Library of New Zealand’s knowledge, under New Zealand law, there is no copyright in this item in New Zealand.
You can copy this item, share it, and post it on a blog or website. It can be modified, remixed and built upon. It can be used commercially. If reproducing this item, it is helpful to include the source.
For further information please refer to the Copyright guide.