Taranaki Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1906. EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 13234, 4 August 1906, Page 4

Taranaki Herald. SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1906. EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS.

Commercial mm complain, -with a fair 'amount, of re a son, that it is very difficult nowadays to get a boy fresh from school who is capable of decent handwriting. There is aux imtptressian aibi'oad , that ' in some respects old_ nwrthods were the 'best. 'What could equal the <*akes our mothers u?ed to make or <tlve good o"kl-f a'shioned ( ton of coal ? A'nii thei*e are many > ready io assert and maintain tha*tho boys of some, years' ago, with Ihiore and there, rare exceptions, left school betfcer poamien' "than do- the boys of the present clay. In so-eking" a-boui for a rtea'son, aimny theories" have (bean ad■iianoed, all more , or, less ingenious. [The vertical style of writing that has 'become the vogue of recent 1 years Ji<as been . absolutely condeantoetl in samp 'quarters ; "in fact, ' wo published tho 1 other day the 'remarks of a coniljnercial man who went so" far a;s to say that any boy who- came to . his; 'o"".<\i and treated him to fet kind of panmanship would have very short ! shrift indeed. Certainly, -t0,. -th© vbulk pf persons who were^a^gibt hid write , f sensibly" (as we h*avo hoard .it vpuit) lihe vertical - style looks ugly, . awi_ wo | ,■--'•-- '

can r^a'dily i'magir.o would disturb the nerves of some f ilk, but aftci' all it Can hardly bty the cause o? the amount of youlhful ''bad r <?^' n '"R'n 9 ' n iP tlm-t we hear so much aboti't, fo? writing, whether, tiprigwt ov sloping 1 , may ibb equally legible ii suiiHeieat.' c"are is bestowed upon it. An-o^ihv(r, T.nd' more " easily acoapfod, theory a'j icx the oause of indifferent wrlt'n-g • i^-'tha-t--the present day 'School : ay'lialbais is much> more comiTi.'licnulvo t'^an it x^s:>d to h£ and that toach.r-, in order to get their pupils fairly f.smiliar with all the pass suHjjectn, Cannot spare the , time , noccsfary for i'h© manufacture of good caligrivp'hcrs. However, even that theory is not ••exceptionally convincing. AV O have known blacksmiths whose writing- was V.eautiful, and we have mot- men who might be said, io ha I.©1 .© • liv<?:l with pcais in their hands -\\lxose h-e-t efforts were next door to being imdosiplverable. Tlierefor© — we are o? course open to correction I—we1 — we do Hot think that ' the old-stylo methods nro deserving of extravagant, pra-ls* and those of the present day of wfoolcsalq condemns tden. , TLe three ''R's" n-o doubt received more attention then than they do now, and'tW boys who^ had an aptitude for writing>,may possibly have- been proportionately greater, but under existing 1 condition ■; there is no' reason whatever why the oaligraphy of school clvildr^n s-h'ould not.be] good, provided ialways tha* sufficient' attention, is- "bestowed "uj^on it by both teacher and pupil. At tha last meeting of tho Wellin^tQn Ohiaim^-er o? Comanerce it was deckled that ti sum not exceeding, twenty-fpur guineas per airniutn he sot a."ide to pro^da , special prices "to offered to the eight State sch'oolsj of Welling-ton 1 for piupjil's passing the best exalnination in (a) coniImercial arithmetic ; (b) oniginal English composition; and ( (c) handwriting. In making the motion, the Chairman said thnt lie had thought for some j time, that the Chamber ought to ' do something to encourage commercial education. They all, ho adxted, foiind great difficulty in getting, for their offices boj'S who had any convniereial ediication at all. Mr W. Eraser, M.'H.R., said it might l>e that , the typewriter was at tho root of thw trouble, but it was very difficult *to get a boy who could write a decent hand. Mr John Dnthie expressed surprise that the schools did not prepare 'boys lor commercial life; that work was all left to be dona by; the , c/.'fioos they entered. _ r O*thcir speakers, had something interesting to contribute to the discussion. One considered that the subject was far too "important to bo^dealt with by an isolated body in an isolated city, and urged that it was a matter to,, be done by a federation of ' •Chambers, while another expr/essed the opinion that the primary/ schools were not going in the direction of giving an impet\is to commercial training, and added that the offering of prizes for competition would encourage pupils to do theirt best. The same thing was, he said, being done in' Germany and Bradford. Mr J. S. Barton/ director of the Banks Commercial College, asserted that, the position now was that when, a boy, might be expected to be able to wrift a letter grammatically, and apply hi 4 arithmetic to some purpose, the office ho went into simply •hadH'o ' teach him everything. A poj^ v Jjh^.t ,vjmust not be ovorlook'od^— it "is an* oa«is in a desert of pessimism — is that the. advent of technical and continuation classes must have a great power for g-ood in this particular clmneciion, provided always that parents are alive to thoir responsibilities and make full use • of the advantages, plaqed , at the disposal of their children. "We have tsueh classes here, but, as we 'stated the other day, they 'are not bo 'well attended as they should be. At a later stage wo hope to 'b« alilo to chronicle better things. , , '. • •