EDUCATION IN U.S.A-A CONTRAST

Evening Post, Volume CIII, Issue 101, 2 May 1922, Page 8

EDUCATION IN U.S.AA CONTRAST

TO THE EDITOR,

,Sir, —It is sometimes worth while making contrasts between our own country, and that of another, with respect to their relative progress in any particular way.

We spend m New Zealand approximately £2 per head of the population on education, annually. We have over 200,----000 children attending our primary schools, and I do not suppose there are more than 100 children, if so many, that are not upon some school roll or other in. this country. I was much impressed by the_ revelations which have just been made in the United States of America i concerning the',child labour problem there, as revealed by the National Child Labour Committee in its report for 1921. This report was reviewed in the New York Times of 29th January, , of ■ this ■year. There are approximately , seventeen and a-half millions of children in the United State 6of primary school.age, 'and it is a remarkable fact that in, a ten-year period as many as tou million children have prematurely left school- to go to work in the United' States—an average of two million a year. Perhaps you \rill allow me to quote this significant paragraph from, the National Committee's report :—

"There are thousands of children in many' big cities and even remote towns doing factory work in tenement homes, beginning to help their mothers at

' such work as mere babies of three and ' four years old, working often under ' most insanitary conqitionfi, in poor light, and long hours. Maay thousands of boys are working in the streets of the biggest cities all over the ' Jnited State© endangering their school life, health, and morals. Very small children-are often employed in moving picture factories or studios with exposure which1 is criminal. No effective law has been passed against this in any State."

Ifc is unnecessary to make any comment upon this deplorable state of affairs in the Jnited States, it ought not, however, to be ■ omitted from mention that 17 and 4-Sth pel' cent, of the children of school age in. the United States are not enrolled in any school at all. ■

Such are a few statements that to me seem conspicuous in the report of the National Child' Labour Committee of U.S.A. It is gratifying to know that no such conditions as obtain in the United States are to be found in. this bright Dominion. What would be thousrht if it were stated officially that between eight »nd ten thousand of our children were not on any school in New Zealand ? Yet that is approximately the number in proportion to our population that would be

truants if we were in the came condition as the United States in regard to education. ; .

One of the most important statements which I saw made in several places towards the end of the war was that ' of the United States Army in France, as many as 750,000 soldiers of the U.S.A. could neither read nor write. It has been stated that this revelation by the military authorities of the backwardness of education in the United States has led to a remedy being attempted, but. from the. report of this National Committee it seems that the U.S.A. is. in a distressing condition from an educational point of view. :. What with its six millions of ■unemployed,' and the ignorance of millions of its young people, is it any wonder that the moral and criminal ■statistics of the U.S.A. are to-day probably the worst and most regrettable of any civilised country in the.world? Some people are apt or inclined to cavil at our expenditure upon education —some 'even say, we have too much education. It is, however, true that education and that of the best quality and highest grade is a passport to good citizenship and a. safe bulwark of our democracy. Our high educational standard has proved, and iis proving, its worth.—l am, etc., „, ..

J. D. SIBVWRIGHT.

27th April,