NEWSPAPERS AS CLASS-BOOKS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 273, 24 April 1873, Page 6

NEWSPAPERS AS CLASS-BOOKS.

(From the Timaru Herald")

What our colonial youth learn is learned in the school-room entirely, and with this knowledge before us we point out a " class-book " which might well be added to the schoolmaster's , repertoire — the newspaper. Ephemeral as the newspaper undoubtedly is with its news fresh to-day and stale- to-morrow, still it is the only running history of the times in which we live. Though it is much the fashion with blas& newspaper readers to decry the morning sheet with a "Psha*v, there is nothing in the paper," if its columns haply do not contain that which is sensational, or anything particularly interesting to the reader personally, yet a newspaper must be badly got up indeed if there is not found in it much that is interesting, instructive and novel. In America, that country of newspapers and light literature, the newspaper id introduced into schools with marked success, and we i?re pleased to see that the system is finding advocates on this side of the line. Mr. Pearse, head master of one of J the Government schools at Buninyong, in Victoria, has recently addressed a cir cular to the parents and guardians of children attending his school, in which he thus sets forth the value of newspapers as a means of education : "We have to do with many children whose wholo stock of information is acquire! in the school, their home training being of no assistance whatever. The only books read are those of the school, which contain, as a glance through the fourth and fifth reading books will show, difficult lessons on Political Economy, Wonders of Science, Subjugation of the Powers of Nature, and copious extracts from the English classics — Shakespeare, Milton, Pope, Addison, &g. Parents need not wonder therefore that pupils in the higher classes occasionally fail in reading, for what is read must be thoroughly understood. More extensive reading is required. We find that those of our elder pupils who are accustomed to read a newspaper, are in point of general intelligence vastly superior to their less fortunate class-mates. Linked as we are by electric telegraph to the whole civilised world, one is inclined to wonder that any family should be without

a paper, especially now that the cost is so little." The above extract will commend itself to the attention of all men who desire to see the adoption of a more liberal and a more diversified system of education than at present obtains in our common schools. The schoolmaster, for the most part never dreams of going beyond the four corners of the class book, and there are some no doubt so wedded to the old system of teaching, that they would consider it heterodox to supplement that system by any means whatever ; again, there are some others — and among them we believe is to be found the head master of the Timaru public school — possessing sufficient elasticity and liberality of mind, to graft fresh buds on to the old stalk. The newspaper, to our thinking, should be found in every school-room. The Press being of "no religion," stands on a platform where the Catholic and Protestant, Wesleyan and Presbyterian, can come together without fear of clashing one with another. By saying the Press has "no religion," we mean to infer that with the exception of certain class journals, the columns of newspapers are generally closed against religious disputations, and in the matter of news all sects and denominations are treated alike ; yet for the most part the Press of New Zealand, is, we think, distinguished by ics high moral tone, and by a general absence of that language which seeks under cover of moral teaching, to instil a subtle poison. The introduction of newspapers into schools should have the effect of lightening for an hour or so the dull routine of the schoolroom, and the diversified character of the news contained in the average newspaper, would be far more eagerly sought after by the youngsters, than Roman History, or a lesson on the geography of the White Sea. Moreover such reading giving a taste for instructive reading and enquiry, would be conducive to good, and bring the boy to take an intelligent interest in matters of every day occurrence.