SCHOOL PRIZES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXVI, Issue 8421, 21 January 1899, Page 4

SCHOOL PRIZES.

Many persons think the custom of prizegiving in public schools, as a result of the annual examinations should die out. According to Christchurch Truth, the custom is fast going out of favor, and in its place the childicn are treated to outings, at which both the dull and clever meet on an equal footing. In Australia there is a movement, which is likely to prove successful, in favor of substituting some other means of celebrating the termination of the school year for that of prizegiving. Referring to this subject, a correspondent of the Sydney Telegraph writes as under: — "The school "speech days," through which the countiy has now happily passed, inculcate- a lesson which it will be one of the first duties of tho ideal man, when he arrives, to industriously set about unlearning. What they teach i& the fatuous, invidious worship of success, and r. corresponding depreciation of mete merit when accompanied by misfortune. Observe the prize-taker as he steps up to receive the guerdon of bis success amidst the plaudits of the assembled multitude. A bright youth generally, nith superior faculty for packing facts in the storehouse of Ins mind, so that be knows at once \\ here to find the exact one that i.s wanted. They declare him "dux of the school,"' give him a gold medal and a beautifully bound volume of Macaulay's Essays, and fill him up with the vain conceit that he is the most deserving boy of his year. VY r et, as a matter of fact, he may have done lets on his own account to deserve a prize than the poorest plodder who has striven patiently and persevcringly against a natural slowness or incompetence which handicapped him hopelessly out of the race. This is where tlie injustice of the prize system comes in. It is only the we t'ir.tis principle applied in a negative way. There is no honor for those who have striven in vain, let them strive ever so well. It is all for those who, irrespective of effort of their own, have got to the first place. Of course, the prize-winner may have been the most conscientious worker as well as being endowed with superior capacity, but that does not enter into the question. It is> only success that counts. This blatant adulation of mere success which prevails throughout every department of life is the out come of the barbarous instinct which caused the cave man with the biggest biceps to be honored as the most virtuous and deserving person amongst the crowd, and still pays the saino tribute to bis civilised analogue, the man with the biggest, bank balance."