THE Wairarapa Age SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1912. THE NEW SCHOLARSHIP.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10519, 6 January 1912, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age SATURDAY, JANUARY 6, 1912. THE NEW SCHOLARSHIP.

Tliere is a good deal of sound com-mon-sense in. am article entitled "The Heart of Things," contributed to Chambers' Journal by Mr Henry Leach, aaid dealing with the subject of schclarslhiips. The. quest-ion is owe of interest to educationists in New Zealand 1 as to those ini other parts of the Empire. Mr Leach- rightly says' that till© present system of exa mini action, especially iin- secondary schools, lias long been under suspicion. Can:did'ates are crammed with books of faots. which are not understbod, and the esamiiiiatttions are mere memory tests. Mediocrity is encouraged and individuality suppressed. History books often end at tlhe accession of Qtuaen- Victoria, ,exactly where they ought mare properly to begin. It is • the events- of the modern time that have an- immediate (tearing on alii thlat we have to do to-day. -Students, know alii about tillo Reformation, but nothing about' the Reform and Education! mteasrmres of flue most tremendous codiscqiiciLce. While they know, or at feast once dlid know all about the oid-ttdime trouble with the barons, they know nothing of the causes which led up to the Parliament Act ! of 1911. How serviceable it wiould bo

to be equipped wirtih a knowledge of" ■the rise of Labour and th© history 'of the Trad© TJiuiota movement! libo knowledge of many of mir early wars with I'Vance couM well bo spared to make.room for gome concerning tfhte progress of Gtermany in* recent years, amd fcnofwk'digo 01 the CoaitainentaJ ailflliia-nces' of Juvg-gMie times, very i soon feagotibcav j.£aiii, i® infinitely I less import-ant than. Knowledge aboutti I tilaj Triple Alliance to-day. What' do | students- learn abo>ut> the British Empire? Oani itHiey read with any uin-d'-rstandiimg the money cotonais of i'l.e daily papers? W3ip.t do they k.iow of the Morocco of to-day? If ' < .i'y Mifexe v. a® swfo <a tiring as a !icoi' at whlkh destined for > commercial' carctors could be tatigliit oaily the things of to-duny, beginning JingHish- history with the nineteenth century, considering geography onsy from this poimt of view of the political 1 and commercial prohlfemis of the i-eoent- past and the future, being made to speak and read! both' French and -German-, and being taught something of the sampler laws of _ the country a& they atiect the ordinary doings* of the individual in privoifce and commercial life—in short, being mad© so efficient' ini knowledge of subjects and miatttors of current interest and importance., that they could pass a;n. emmaniationi based upon the newspaper, surely such a school' would' succeed' amazingly. How a little of suicii practical knowledge would add to the interest and pleasure amd profit. «f reading the daily paper?