The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1887-09-24 00:00:00

,Stottrbrige brier

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1887.

OUR CHILDREN'S SCHOOLING.

FROM the Education Year Book published
the other day there is a good deal which is
of interest to gather; of interest to the tax-
payer, who has a right to know what ha gets
for his money in the way of schooling for
the children of the people; of intetest to the
thoughtful, who take intelligent pleasure in
the examination of the mental food which
is being provided by the nation for its rising
generation, and in watching in what manner
it assimilates with the youthful mind; and
of interest, also, to the parents who have
children whose future depends in a great
measure upon the sufficiency of the equip—
ment of knowledge they receive in school-
days. We are practically persuaded that in
years to come the man or woman who has
not a good grounding of education will fare
badly in the battle of life, and to prevent
the uprising ot a new generation of the
ignorant we have covered the land with a
scho,3l system which takes in within its
working revery child born with its senses.
The well-to-do can, and do, provide for the
tuition of their own offspring; the nation
*applies cheap teaching for children of those
not overburdened with worldly wealth, and
sehooling gratis for young unfortunates
whose friends cannot afford the payment of
weekly pence. All this by elaborately
planned and carefully erected machinery,
which has now for some years been in
efficient going order, and producing, on the
whole, highly satisfactory results. There is
an annual stock-taking of our great national
educational concern, when one gets an op—
portunity of looking into the details of the
year's doings. A Blue Book just
issued contains the record of the twelve
months last past. It is a record of steady
progress, showing that the provision for
elementary education keeps well in front of
the demands of a growing population. We
are beyond the period of leaps and bounds
in improved attendance at --Board and other
public primary schools; for the attendance
officers have so systematically beaten up the
stragglers that but a very small percentage
of the population is now able to evade the
regulations of the Elementary Education
Act. The Standards and the whole curri-
culum have been fixed, too, with such wise
deliberation and care that a high level of
results from the teaching is maintained ; and
one cannot expect it to be greatly exceeded.
There is one point, however, in which there
is a good deaL of room for improvement, and
that is with regard to regularity. Irregular
attendance is of little value to those who
practise it, and it is a hardship and a hind-
rance to such as are always in their places
when school opens. The irregular attender
gets ultimately a smattering of learning—
that "little knowledge " which is prove;bi-
ally "a dangerous thing," but not enough te
earn for his teachers the Government Grant
towards the school expenses. It is unsatis-
factory, therefore, to have to note that out
of a total of 4,615,097 who ought every day
to be at school, not quite three-quarters, or,
to be precise, 3,438,425, are in average daily
attendance. It is clear that there is parental
carelessness where a number equivalent t 3
one in every four of the scholars is returnel
as continually away; and it is worth noting
that a Divisional inspector reports that the
absentees are to a great extent the children
oF idle and drunken people. Neglecting t )
secure rejular attendance at school on the
part of their boys and girls should, in the
absence of sufficient cause, be just as punish
able an offence in the case of those in chary
of children as keeping them. away altogethe..
is. There is a great deal too much of this
occasional attendance, this allowing the,
young to go to school just often enough to
prevent the issue of a summons by the
School Board officer. It is the bane of th
teachers, preventing progress where progres
would otherwise be made; and it is a curse
also to the children who come drooping in
at odd tim33 two or three days a week, fo:
they learn little and run imminent risk of
wing ruined by the habits of irregularity,
carelessness, and want of method which are
being grafted into their nature. Another
matter deserving attention is that there is
scarcely sufficient grip or. the children of the
poorer classes ta render it absolutely certain
that they shall not be defrauded by personal
indolence or the neglect of those in relation-
ship to them of their birthright of know-
ledge. They get away at 13 or 14 years of
age to work, often imperfectly educated—in
a rudimentary sense, even; and after that
the law loses power over them, for good and
all. There should be some sufficient system
of supplementary evening schools at which
the attendance of those who have not passed
the Sixth Standard, say, should be obliga-
tory. This might be managed withone,
h triship if ca-erally planeed, and ten or
fifteen years huce we should be all th )
better, as a nt:oI. f it. enforcing complete-
ness in our education arrangements. Vir
should thus secure the finishing of the teach-
ing of most if not all of the neglected 26
p.r cent. who leave school at full ago with a
reeo -d of irrJga arity. The study of gram.
in tr is less popular in the elementaiy
schools, we learn, than that of any other
essential subject, in most districts; while
history and elementary science are ale
greatiy disliked. Oa the other han
g iv—aphy an l natural history are favourite
class sabre's, largely bes-ause they ar
guairtily pictorially- illustrated. Should no
th.s be a lesson to school managers to spare
no pains to make-study - attractive, and do
all that ingonuity can devise to awaken an
iatet est in the minds of the pupils in what
is being t them? In this particular
Oeieneey an-1 ~1 e coutinental nations can
_rto a lvantag-) twee B itaia
übjeci I.Lisou is not regai.jed
nearly so important as it ought to ba. We

1