SCHOOL MATTERS.

Gisborne Times, Volume V, Issue 94, 30 April 1901, Page 2

SCHOOL MATTERS.

the Editor of the Times.) Silt, —Allow mo through tho medium of your paper to say a few words re Mr Marshall’s letter. Does not the parent who called at Times office re classification of his child, recognise that the course MiMarshall has adopted, is the only one possible ? Is lie aware that the standards do not now really exist, and that children arc classified according to the judgment of tho headmaster of each school. If the little girl who left Makauri school for very inadequate reasons, is to combine the physical toil of a long walk with exhausting mental work, there will be a breakdown somewhere. I consider that Mr Marshall has exercised a wise discretion. —I am, etc.,

Claude Bolton. - (To the Editor.) Sir, —I am much surprised at the action taken at the meeting of the Makauri householders, and I am sure that the resolution adopted would not have had any support if the position had been thought over. The best master in the world is powerless to deal properly with children if their regular attendance cannot be relied on., The same is heard from all parts of the colony. It is hot merely the boys who stay away who arc affected. The irregular attendance of one pupil affects a whole class. It is disheartening to a master, and instead of parents turning upon the master in the way some did at the meeting referred to, they should look to the real cause, and give him all the assistance they can to get the children to attend. If parents would only realise their responsibility in the matter of the attendance it would make a great difference in the school work. Though complaint has been uiade about the tuition at Makauri, no one can deny that some able youths have excellent reason to remember with pride the manner in which they were instructed by Mr Bolton, all the critics notwithstanding.—l ani, etc., Makauri,