The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 879, 21 September 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY , SEPTEMBER 21, 1881.

We are glad to see that the N, Z. Times has called attention to the costly nature of some of our educational appendages. We have some reason to be proud of our" scheme," as it is called, though our feeling of complacency may be tempered with sadness when now ami again the cost of the affair comes homo to us, Our contemporary has drawn attention to the cost of district high schools and of training schools, arguing that the results we get from these institutions do nofc justify tho expemlitip which is incurred on them, We quite agree I with this view, and only regret that' colleges and universities are not added to the list. The cost of higher education in the colony has been something enormous, It has swallowed up, in addition to constantly recurring grants of public money, lorge areas of the finest land in New Zealand, and every session, in some form or other, it comes open-mouthed on the Assembly, and as hungry as ever. If the colony were to educate all children up to the third or fourth standard free of charge, and nothing beyond this, the public burthen wou],d be materially lightened, and a whole sw.arm of professors, principals, inspectors, and miscellaneous officials might be swept away, and perhaps spend their earnings in the more' useful occupation of tilling the soil, At present we are oyereducating children in all parts of the colony. A boy can work fractions, but oannofc milk or dig; a girl knows decimals, but cannot sew or make a pudding. For the real business of Jife, for earning their own living by their own labor, children are unfitted, because a patent standard varnish school education is substituted for the training they really require,.' The public accept as gospel the sixrstand■ards of the Education Board/ little dreaming that the effect of th'em.ina great measure Is to give a child a, superficial knowledge of subjects which are but little use to it in after life. We hold with children being taught the three K's—being made to read intelligently, to write legibly, and to understand simple arithmetical questions, but these once thoroughly mastered, the further training of the child should be of an industrial character. The standards, however, do not give this. Ihey aim at cramming with algebra, geometry, history, and other branoljes of learning which spoil the youngster for becoming a ploughman, an axeman, a carpenter, or a laborer. Just in the same way as horses in this colony are bred in many instances not forsubr stance and endurance, but for racing short distances in a quick time with a feather-weight on their backs, so are colonial boys beginning to be trained. Pale, sickly, office boys are becoming abundant, but the sturdy healthy lad who works in the fields is getting scarce, What' shall we do with our boys and what shall we do with our girls will very Boon become a serious question. The colony demands their services, but they are not brought up to Berve it,