CENTRAL SCHOOLS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXII, Issue 238, 7 October 1891, Page 2

CENTRAL SCHOOLS.

(To the Editor.)

Sm,—Before I attempt to answer the points raised by your correspondent " Vasco " on the establishment of central schools, I should like first to point oub that the name State school is rather misleading. It cannofa be solely applied to the district school, as the whole system of education supported by the country is State education, whether we speak of district schools, Grammar schools,or University colleges. They are all alike State schools; in fact, this is the main point in what I have to say on the subject, and 1 am trying to show that tho money now spent on education is ample, if it were only properly applied. The system should be one and harmonious; whereas, those well acquainted with ib speak aa if it worked in different isolated sections and thab the sections were p.t-rongly opposed. Even your amiable correspondent " Vasco " suggests that I want to provide good billets for the young men and young women who have been under my instruction. I can assure him that* all my late pupils havo no difficulty in making good iivings either at trades or in business or in professions, and I hope that none of the present will ever need a billet, if by that we mean a comfortable livelihood for a fraud. Again, there is generally some misconception about the object of a technical school. Let us t-ike the case of a School of Minos. Here the time for the course must be limited, and the students ought not to enter until they have a preliminary knowledge of geometry, algebra, and trigonometry. They ought also to know some chemistry and elementary physics, with a facility in writing on these subjects—which may be. called another language. Technical schools have been tried where this preparatory knowledge was nob insisted on, and schools have failed, and will fail, until there is a constant supply on hand of the right kind of student. The object of a technical school is to show how to properly apply tho knowledge that has beon already acquired. "Vasco" says that,where the upper standard? consist of a few pupils in each, the head I teacher takes both together and has also to supervise the whole school. Surely this is a worse state of things than anything I have mentioned, for what good results can be attained with children of fourteen and fifteen years of age where .they receive only the divided attention of tho master or mistress ? The supervision of a school where there are young and inexperienced teachers is no light responsibility. Consider tho advantage of tho children going to a central school with the undivided attention of a teacher, where they would be kept fully and profitably occupied. It must be evident to a teaohsr or to any sensible person that when children find that they are not doing as much as they could, they either become listless or troublesome. This is the outward sign of being demoralised. Moral influence is not gained where the children do uot feol that their good qualities, whether'of mind or of disposition, are developed and improved by the teacher, and this cannot be dono unless the pupils are making the very best use of their time and that the teacher has respectable attainments.

No doubt many of the teachers now employed have all the mental and moral qualifications for 'carrying on the central schools, bub it is first necessary .chat they should be afforded a chance of displaying their talents. Why should bboy nob have scopo bo teach mathematics and science when they know those subjects, and tha pupils need a knowledge of them ?

With regard to the dispute about which class of school, as at present constituted, teaches best, I have only to say that I am opposed to class schools and in favour of one harmonious system of education. Say that pupils from district schools make great progress at grammar schools, then why should we restrict the advantages of a higher education to a few ? About one per cent, of the population lias the advantage at present, and yet the remedy is easy. The central schools I advocate.ire true secondary schools, as the education of those who pass the Fourth Standard will be carried on as though admitted to a high school, with the exception that French and Latin shall not be tauehr. Nob thab I bear any ill-feeling against these two subjects, but bhat the teaching of them is already provided for, in what I should call special fchoob, now known by the name of grammar schools, high schools, colleges, etc., etc. As I baforo romorked, the central pcliools will prepare the right kind of student for technical schools, and for th 9 want of these students such schools must prove failures. It is also open to students from central schools to pursue their studies at the University Colleges, in case they may wish to perfect themselves in pure and mixed mathematics and science.— Youre, etc., Jas. Adams.