COMMERCIAL EDUCATION

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4290, 25 February 1901, Page 4

COMMERCIAL EDUCATION

One of the complaints urged by business men against our education system is that adequate provision is not made m the higher standards for imparting a knowledge of commercial principles and practice to pupils. Frequently ha® this subject been brought under the notice cf scholastic authorities by chambers of commerce. Merchants have often remarked that the youths who come fresh from school to their offices at the ages of fifteen or seventeen know nothing of office work, and have to be taught the first steps in. the ways of commerce. I: is contended that boys ought in the last two years of the public school course to be instructed in the rudiments of trade

and in the principles that-govern coxdmer-

rial life. It is argued that pupils ought < to be given aa opportunity, under then . parents’ direction, of indicating to wio schoolmaster the line in life they purpose following, so that their education nary bo shaped accordingly- L wish to be artisans, attention should be given to technical training. If t^f ir choice is commerce, then a course ol instruction calculated to fit a youth Rr such,a career ought to bo entered upon. A training of the latter kind, our merchants affirm, is the only way in which youths fresh from the public i-nmols c.»n become of immediate value to them. At a time when British commercial supremacy us a people is being assailed on every side, it becomes the mure necessary that a commercial training should be iiap.tri.cti to our young men. Those who have urged the establishment of technical schools, and have seen therr efforts crowned with a degree of success, were actuated by the sumo motive as is non stirring the commercial community. The conviction is rapidly gaining upon the people that cur schools must daily become more and more the training ground for the practical purposes of life. This point wars emphasised the other day by Lord Rosebery,, who, as Rector ol the Glasgow University, observed: ‘•The question will be asked of the product of our educational system—''Hero is a i young fellow of twenty; he has passed the best years of acquisition and impression ; lie has. cost so muon ; v. ij.it rt h;.s value? for what, in all the manifold activities of the world, is ho fit?’ And I if the 1 answer be not satisfactory, if the product be only a sort .of learned mummy, the sy stem will be condemned. ’ liarit not appeared to the least observant ■ or thoughtful of our business men that ■ there are thousands of young lads at our primary and secondary schools frittering away their time in the study of subject; ’ that will be utterly valueless to their when 'they come to earn their living; * For instance, hundreds arc wastmi 1 time in studying the languages of the dead, when a knowledge of the ways o 1 the living and the customs of present day trade and commerce would be men , to tins' purpose. Sir Robert Stout one;

i remarked at tlio distribution of prizes at a/ socwuclary school that the youths r attending and devoting their time to ■* tiie study of what appeared useless to them Were training themselves in hab- - its that would be the stay of their ch.rr- ? acters in after life. Yes; the power of application must bo acquired while t young; but that habit might be as satis- ) factorily cultivated in a. curriculum of 3 immediate usefulness as in the study of • ancient languages by youths wno will have nothing to do with classics as soon 1 as they quit school. " When something like an edge is bell mg put upon scholastic affairs in this , country, it behoves those iu authority to give attention to what is one, of tho - pressing needs of our educational system. How best to promote the technij cal, soientSlo and commercial education ; of our; young people ought to bo the chief care of all \vho desire to see the youth of New Zealand early and adequately equipped for the business of . life. We cannot afford to sit quietly by f and see ihe American and the German, t who have received tho training we ’ should be imparting to our young people, brush them aside and, undertake tho work and duties we ought to have qualified our cwn to perform. Competition amongthe nations demands that tho methods of our schools and colleges should become more practical. If we do - not qualify our youths for life’s work, ® then they will not thank us for allowing conditions to remain in our educational system 1 that necessitated their losing much valuable time. Besides, the loss of time in attending' to subjects at , school of little or no utility in respect to au industrial or commercial career, becomes not merely a hardship and a handicap to the individual, but is a posi- - tiyo lo'sp to the country itself. It, therefore, appears that the schools and colleges endowed with a technical and ooma mercial faculty will bo of greater service to tho Slate, ’ having regard to the exigI encies pf tho times, than those institutions that give pride of place to ancient * classics; in their Curriculum. It is un- . derstood that tho Minister of Education . is now Contemplating how- best to turn ,j our primary and secondary school mothe ods in tpio direction we have indicated, and no more worthy object could occupy his attention.