FREE PLACES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL.

Evening Star, Issue 12872, 23 July 1906, Page 2

FREE PLACES IN THE HIGH SCHOOL.

TO THE EDITOB. Sir, —As one who has been intimately acquainted with the Boys’ High School for years, I would like to give my reasons why the age limit should not be abolished. They are ;—(1) The accommodation of the school is at present sufficiently taxed, and a further increase of pupils would cause inconvenience and crowding, and further, the masters would be unable to pay as much attention to individual pupils as they do at present. (2) Many boys take advantage of the free placed to fill in time before obtaining some employment or other, and, in applying for such a position, they take good rare to “crack np ’’ the fact of their being Hmh School boys. The older a pupil is the more likely he is to sacrifice his free place in order to accept an opening in an office, etc. Therefore, I oppose the abolition of the age limit. (5) The average Government scholar does not pay the slightest attention to tidiness, cleanliness, or manners. The High School has splendid buildings and splendid surroundings, and one would expect every scholar to try and have himself in beeping with bis surroundings. Duneaip is not a poverty-stricken place, yet I am quite sure that Dunedin people cannot be pleased with the sight of High School boys slouching round the town in any sort of appareL Again, most of the free hoys have absolutely no maimers—evidently they have not been trained to them ■—and, owing to excess of pupils, the masters hays not the time to instil principles which should have been taught by the pupils’ own parents. (4) In this paragraph I refer to the vice of “cribbing,” which has been introduced into the school by the coming of the free scholar. Boys who have been strictly supervised in the public schools, on coming to the High . Behoof, find that the masters of that institution seem to rely on the boys having at least common honesty. The result is that a inordinate amount of petty dishonesty is carried on in the lower forms. I suppose that everybody is aware that slates are used in the junior portion of the school. Well, I have heard it on reliable authority that when the slates are changed among the pnpils themselves for correction perfectly blank slates invariably return with all the answers inserted, and religiously labelled No errors. Now this sort of thing must tend to lower the tone of a school, and I am perfectly certain that this system of cheating is carried on, mid by a surprisingly large number of pupils. (5) Most ; of the free pupils take no outdoor exercise whatever. Pehaps it would be a good idea to apportion a fraction of e f C r fee ? to various athletic clubs of the school, and thus make athletics compulsory. It is my private conviction that a little outdoor exercise w-pold improve them both morally and fissffe a? sw *. '.A*"-'-"*