GEOGRAPHY AND REVOLUTION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 97, 7 April 1934, Page 7

GEOGRAPHY AND REVOLUTION

What a Witness Said in 1879 Miss A. E. Phillips, president of the London Teachers’ Association, in her presidential address at the annual conference recently, caused laughter by quoting from evidence given before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in 1879. The inquiry concerned extravagant expenditure by the London School i Board, and a witness said:— i "Geography, sir, is ruinous in its ' effects on the lower classes. Beading, writing, and arithmetic are comparat- | ively safe, but geography invariably 1 leads to revolution. I "Physiology, besides being costly and useless, is an immodest subject. M hen the Author of the Universe hid the liver out of sight He did not want frail human creatures to see how He had done it. "Grammar is an enervating exercise which the good sense of vestries has I excluded from all parochial discussI ions. The whole effect, sir, of extra ■ subjects is to diminish the fierce viri tues of an ancient people. i "The dominating qualities of the race are passing away day by day.’’