The Express.
London, England, 1868-07-27 00:00:00

LETTER WRITING IN SCHOOLS.

It:am-roes of schools are sometintes accused of
planing down individual opinions and even peou-
liaritiee of style and expression, in preparing their
reports for the eye of the Committee of Council.
There is supposed to bo some particular stand-
ard to which all are expected to conform.
Mr. MATTHNW ARNOLD, at any rate,
makes no such attempt. His general re-
port, as her Illantere's inspector, on the
Normal schools of the British and Foreign School
Society, which is just printed in a blue book, reads
much like a paper in the Corithill on Philistinism.
Thus at one page he says :—" In this country,
" where little importance is attached to the science
" of public administration, a public department is
" apt first to attempt to exercise .critical function
" with insufficient means, and then, when the re-
" suit appears unsatisfactory, hastily to re-
" treat altogether from exercising it. The better
" way, perhaps, would be to exercise it properly."
This to the Education Department is refreshing.
There is then a reference to the example of Ger-
many, and a contrast is instituted between the plan
there of confiding school literature to " ex-
" perts of recognised expertness," and the
English practice of either exercising this control
with imperfect instruments, or abandoning
it altogether, and suffering private spe-
culation to have unchecked play. But the
middle classes and Mr. Bavairr must somehow be
brought in. This is managed by congratulatory
sentences, in the first place, on the advantages
which the instruction of oar primary schools
has derived from the public character which,
in the last 30 years, it has received, causing
those schools to compare so favourably
" with," adds Mr. ARNOLD, " the private
" adventure schools of the middle class,
" that class which Mr. BRIGHT says is per-
" fectly competent to manage its own schools and
" education. The work in one is appraised by
" impartial educated persons; in the other by the
" common run of middle-class parents." To show
the difference in the result, Mr. ARNOLD places in
juxtaposition a letter written in school by an ordi-
nary scholar in a public elementary school in his
district, a girl of 11 years old, with one written by
a boy in a private middle-class school, and fur-
nished to one of the Assistant Commissioners of
the Schools Inquiry Commission. The girl's letter
is given first :
Dui Fs r,-1 am afraid I shall not pass my examine-
nos ; Miss 02- says she thinks I shall. I shall be glad
whoa the Serpentine is frozen over, for we shall have such
fun ; I wish you did not Live so far away, then you could
sense and share is the game- Father cannot spare Willie,
so I have as much as I can do to teach him to
cipher mealy. lam now sitting by the school fire, so I
aware you lam very warm. Father and mother are very
well. I hope to see you on Christmas Day. Winter
is coming ; don't it make you shiver to think off Shall
you QM Coma to smoky old London again P It is not so
bed, after all, with its bustle, and business, and noise,
If you see Ellen T-- will you kindly get her address for
me f I must now conclude, as lam soon going to my
reading class ; so good bye.—From your affectionate friend,
And now for the boy's :
_ _

My imam PARENTS.—Tie anticipation of our Christmas
vacation abounds in peculiar delights. Not only that its
" festivities," its social gatherings, and its lively amuse-
menta crown the old year with happiness and mirth, but
that I come a guest commended to your hospitable love
by the performance of all you bade me remember when I
left you in the glad season of sun and flowers. And
time has sped fleetly since reluctant my departing
step crossed the threshold of that home whose
indulgencies and endearments their temporary lose has
taught me to value more and more. Yet that restraint
is salutary, and that self-reliance is as easily learnt as it is
laudable, the propriety of my conduct and the readiness
of my services shall ere long aptly illustrate. It is with
confidence I promise that the close of every year shall find
me advancing in your regard by constantly observing the
precepts of my excellent tutors and the example of my
excellent parents.

We break up on Thursday the 11th of December instant,
and my impatience of the short delay will assure my dear
parents of the filial sentiments of, theirs very sincerely,
N—.
PM.—We shall reassemble on the 19th of January. Yr.
and Yrs. P. present their respectful compliments.
To those who ask, Mr. ARNOLD remarks, and
with the words be concludes his report, what is
the difference between a public school and a
private school Y " I answer, ff w Phis." It is inch
an agreeable surprise to come upon the above in
the midst of ► blue-book of dose upon 1,000
pages, tkat we do not care for the moment to dis-
pute its leirnees as a conclusive illustration.