SCHOOL AND LIFE.

Wairarapa Age, 16 December 1932, Page 4

SCHOOL AND LIFE.

CANON PERCIVAL JAMES AT ST. MATTHEW’S. STIRRING ADDRESS TO PARENTS AND GIRLS. O’UR EDUCATIONAL MUDDLE A number of subjects of considerable interest were touched upon, by Canon Percival James, of Wellington, in an address delivered at the annual speech, day and prize*giving of the St. Matthew’s Collegiate School for Girls yesterday. Canon James said it was a great pleasure to come to this “metropolis of the Wairarapa.’’ Although the shadow of depression was over us all, he was quite sure this was not going to last and that the town was going to become a great educational centre. It already had a good many different types of schools and with its advantages of beautiful scenery and a genial and pleasant climate, it was an ideal place for children to receive their school training in. He hoped that in future the town would possess many great schools nnd that the greatest of all would be this St. Matthew’s Collegiate School for Girls. It was always rather difficult to speak on an occasion of this kind, Canon James observed. For one thing, the young ladies before him were only thinking of the holidays and how to get this over and get home. He hastened to make the exception that on this day all were thinking of the headmistress who had done so much to found and build up this school and was now' laying down the burdens of office, Miss Lazarus. (Applause.) At this time, functions of the kind were being held all over the country and there was a spate of educational talk. One thing of which he was more and more convinced was that the people who called themselves educationists were in a hopeless muddle. No one could read what was reported side by side in parallel columns in the newspapers and doubt it. All over the world people were dissatisfied with the systems of education that had developed during the last fifty years. In every democratic country the State went to great lengths in providing for the care, not only of the mind, but of the body, but the State would make no official recognition of the soul. They found that all over the world, statesmen and students were profoundly dissatisfied with the results of popular education. As it had developed, this had proved to be a fruitful cause of moral indisposition. They had generations of people who had been spoonfed, and, finding themselves in trouble, could do nothing better than whine or clamour for more help. There was widespread disillusion and disappointment at the results of popular education. This was due to its neglect of the vital factor of character formation. Ho was more and more convinced as he grew older that there was only one agency that was powerful in shaping the characters of children and that was religion. There was very little hope of character formation in an education which banned the Bible as pernicious literature and banned God from His little children as an undesirable alien, or only allowed religion to be sneaked into the schools through the back door.

Canon .Tames said he had been through many phases of school life. He had been everything to do with a school except one. He went away to a boarding school as a very young boy and then, at his public, school in England, passed by a painful process from the status of fag to that of prefect. After leaving the university, he had eleven years as a schoolmaster. Now, he had the honour, in New Zealand, to ■be a governor of several schools. Ho might claim to know a little about schools. He had been everything except one thing. He had not been tho parent of a child at school. A great educational founder who afterwards became Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Temple, said, when ho was headmaster of Rugby, that boys were always reasonable, masters sometimes, parents never. (Laughter.) Before he went on to speak a little about mistresses, parents and children, he would like to say a word about governors. Since he had had to do with the governing bodies of schools, he had come to know how difficult and how important their work was and he wanted to congratulate the enterprising Board of Governors of this school who had provided such admirable buildings and carried on the work of the school so well in these difficult He wished them all good fortune in steering the school through troubled waters towards the great future they were all sure- it was destined to attain.

PAYMENT AND REWARD. In visiting what w-ere called private schools, said Canon James, he had been greatly impressed by the immense amount of faithful and ill-paid service that was being rendered in these schools by a magnificent body of men and women. He did not think the parents of children who went to these schools could adequately recognise all that they owed to the masters and mistresses by whom they were staffed A colleague of his, lan Hay, had said that teachers were poorly paid, but richly rewarded. The pay of the teaching profession was not good, but in the knowledge that they were able to do something to mould the characters of succeeding generations of children in their most impressionable years there was a reward that was rich indeed.

There was one with them of whom more would be said presently who was laying down the burdens of office. He was certain that the hearts of both parents and girls were full of gratitude tor the wonderful work Miss Lazarus had done in founding the school, She was leaving the school, but he felt that tho truest immortality was that achieved by a great headmaster or headmistress. He was certain that Miss Lazarus would never be forgotten and that the work, she had done would never pass away. The influence of a great and good headmistress remained through generation after generation of girls. The influence of Miss Lazarus would be remembered in this school when it was perhaps ten times as large as it was to-day. (Applause.) A GOOD INVESTMENT.

For parents, these were difficult times and no doubt many sent their girls to this school at a very real sacrifice. He urged them to make the sacrifice and let their girls remain at school as long as they could. Money could not be invested better than in a girl fa education in a good school. It was an investment that would earn a reward not to be measured. Too high a value could not be placed upon attendance at a school like this, in a healthy locality, where girls might grow in intellect, physique and character, all under the influence of religion, enjoying the advantages of an Hnglish education, which he believed was the best in the world. He hoped that the discipline of the school was reflected in the home. Discipline must be learnt in the home or would not be learnt at all. Had there been more fathers present, Canon James observed, he would have told them of a remark he had heard made by a girl: “Mother is a little tiresome sometimes, but I can twist Dad round my little finger.” There was a point at which freedom degenerated into licence and he was not sure that in many homes this point had not been reached. Discipline in the home was the protective guidance and control that the child had a right to expect from the parent. It was not right that children should be utterly repressed as they were fifty years ago. It was certainly not right that the life of the child should be one of uncontrolled licence. The formation of right habits was a matter of right training in the school, and even more in the home. ‘ GOOD TIMES ” AND IDEALS.

Speaking to the girls, Canon James said that on his way to Masterton,, while wondering what to say to them, he had noticed a big sign which said: 11 Keep that school-girl complexion. f ’ (Laughter.) He was really not fitted to advise them about soap, but perhaps it was not such a small matter, but one of happiness in life. If they were going to leave school just with the idea of having a good time a succession of good times, then they were not going to keep that school-girl complexion. They were living in wonderful times. The last fifty years had been the most wonderful in the history of the world.’ He believed that the next fifty years were going to be more wonderful. Were they simply going to waste all their lives m seeking good times and amusement of which they were surelv going to get tired in the end? He hoped the girls to whom he was speaking would keep great ideals before them. Our Lord had said: “It is more blessed to give than to receive. ,f In our words to-day: <7 lt is what you give, not what you get, that makes life happy.” He was sure that they would make it their object, as they went on in life, to see what they could do to bring happiness to some of those around them. One word he wanted to set before them was “economy.” Some people thought it meant simply not spending so much money. Economy meant the management of a hotne. Some of the girls he was addressing were going to be great in the realms of art, music, literature, science and others, but he hoped there wa-s not a single girl there who was not going to be able to manage a home. He had heard the Mayor of Wellington say, at a meeting called to deal with the relief of distress, that so much depended on whether the woman of the house was a manager or not. Some people of very modest means could, in spite of the present depression, get along fairly well, but in others the women were

such bad managers that whatever you gave them was always wasted. He hoped that every girl would take pride in being capable of managing a home. This was one of the things in which true happiness lay. Another word he wanted to say to them was “duty.” It meant paying what we owed. This day (December 15) was a great one in the history of England because, unde’- a cruel burden —he believed an un.jus > ,wTCi unfair burden—she was meeting *a heavy obligation and sacrificing everything to honour. They must all feel proud of belonging to the Empire and to England which set this standard. The (girls before him were head over ears in debt already. They did not know what they owed to their parents for their loving and anxious care and for the burning anxiety with which they watched tho lives of their children extend. God grant that the girls to whom he was speaking might give their parents joy and be spared the unutterable remorse of knowing that they had caused these parents pam that no one else could have inflicted. Finally, Canon James urged the girls never to forget their duty to their not°th- l W t a e l 16ft ’ they should not think that they had ceased to belong to it. They could always belong ‘because it had had so much to do W‘th the making of them. Their obiect should be to co-operate with those who were determined to build up a great (Applausix) mak ° H tho