THE AMERICAN OUTLOOK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VI, Issue 301, 7 February 1879, Page 17

THE AMERICAN OUTLOOK.

The following, says the Eeenlng Star, are extracts from the Californian correspondence of the Wellington Chronicle. The writer is understood to be Mr. R. J. Creighton :—: — One of the most unblushing transactions for America even has been dragged to light in California. Our school department is run by politicians, the consequence being that men of no character, or of bad and doubtful character, obtain nomination at primaries, are confirmed at county conventions, and elected by the sovereign people, Politicians who mean to rise in their profession usually start in with the school department- It is an unpaid office, that of school director, and as it controls an annual expenditure in this state of some million and a half of dollars (San Francisco alone spends a million dollars a year on its public schools), the position is one of influence aud credit. But money lies at the root of it all, and the disclosures now being made on public investigation, show that the school department is rotten to the core — so rotten that it stinks even in political nostrils. For the last twelve years or more teachers' examinations were>from printed questions, secretly issued to the County Examining Boards from the office of the State Superintendent of Schools at Sacramento. Well, it is now known on sworn testimony that ever since this system was adopted, the questions were issued in advance and sold at from 50 dollars to 200 dollars each, amounting in the aggregate yearly to 30,000 dollars or 40,000 dollars. The State Superintendent, his wife, who is his deputy, his son, who is also an officer of the department, school superintendents, principals, and teachers, chiefly young women, are all implicated — all more or less victims or victimisera. The amount of perjury already in this examination is something amazing, and the capability of the young " school manns " to perjure themselves and suborn perjury, and to do a great many other naughty things connected therewith, proves that the secular syttem, if it tends to emancipate yonth from superstition and make it self-reliant, has failed in this conspicuous example to supply any moral check or restraint. I have been a consistent advocate of secular education, and perhaps upon occasions took an extreme view of the question ; but I am prepared to say now that what I have seen of the working of that system, subject to the popular check (and it should be effective) of frequent election, liability to investigation and impeachment, and the restless vigilance of American newspapers, has led me to modify my views considerably. I can at least be tolerant of the other side, and admit that it is better for the world to cultivate even superstition as the base of personal morality than to cultivate a system which dispenses with it wholly. There, now, I have made my confession on the education question, which I perceive is still unsettled in New Zealand, and am ready to take a back seat. There is no reason why it should be so ; all I know is that so it is. The Rev. Dr. Platt, of Grace Church, attacked it vigorously from his pulpit on Sunday week, and hit another blot which, I understand, is much more common east of the mountains than on this coast. It is this : that men of influence and wealth force their mistresses into the schools as teachers. Doubtless this is occasionally the case here ; but as a rule it is not true. However, there is sufficient foundation for Dr. Platt stating that such was " the common talk " in the community. The school directors are, as a rule, ward politicians. One of them (the present chairman) is an American printer of German extraction, who has been continued for a second year because the Board could not agree upon which of their number should succeed. The chairman nominates all committees, and therefore controls appointments, contracts, and. expenditures, and, if rumour does not lie, the incumbent always makes a snug thing of it. I cannot speak with knowledge ; but say with Dr. Platt, '• it is common talk." Well, ou the fact of this man's continuance in office being reported, he was accosted by a gentleman of culture, who said : "So you are to be chairman of the School Board for another year, I see." " Yes," said the chief of the Education Department ; " I am Chairman of the San Francisco School Board for another year, and a bigger man than a little Christ, by G — 1" This is no libel. It is the truth ; and shows the class of men who obtain office under popular suffrage by the dexterous manipulation of the machine. Men of education feel insulted by such a man's control of the school fund and patronage, but they do not attend the primaries, and permit whiskey-sellers and political strikers to make their own party nominations and " run the machine," What has befallen secular education in America should put you on your guard. Because we have failed grievously, however, is no reason for going to another extreme. There is room for every educational system, and I think the more competition the better. Our schools should be models ; you may learn much from us ; and as you have one English gentleman in Wellington, I believe, who passed a creditable examination here lately and got a certificate, in competition with at least 200 who had bought the examination papers beforehand, it might be profitable to use his experience in perfecting your school system. The Otago plan is good, but it is far from perfect.