The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1857-07-23

with : native habits and phrases as they are with
their own mother tongue long before they are famii-
lar with the inside OF q school-house. You seem not
to have observed that, out of school, these same chill
dire, can be seen On the wbarves, rolling marbles on
the sidewalks, swinging upon gates, climbing fences
or bathing in the ponds with native children. Now,
in all caador, it is submitted to you whether it is any
worse far these children to stand up together and en-
gage ir mental conflict over Colburn's arithmetic
.l.an it is for them to quarrel over a game If mar
bles, e. pecially when the one is carried or IN plain
AngloISaxon, while the other is just what It .>appens
to be Are any worse habits to be contracted, or
more naive phrases to be learned in climbing the
hill of science side by side, than in climbing stone
walls or board fences in the same manner? If it be
SO, the school must be in a pitable condition. There
is an education out Of the school as well as IN it, and
the former often has quite as much to do with shah
its All phrases' as the latter. OF this the editorial
in -es.on taxes cognizance indeed, but in such a
manner as Z, show that it prefers to suffer the disease
rather han to endure the remedy. 1t does appear to
lament the g vice and wretchedness'' amid which
foreign children are being educated. 1t is ready to
shed crocodile tears'' over ed fsh impulses be-
coming ~vitiatsa" on account Of kal and intellect
ual culture neglected"
But, this being done, and you having pronounced
the teacners generally, good fellows, you pounce upcn
the l tie old nan who is so unfortunate as to stand
at the head OF The Department of Public Instruction,
nth a fury at which the old poet would have made
his hero cxclsiR in agony, horrible risu. You say:
"The easocsuSSch have led to the change in the
state o. orr town Schools, dNem asily given.
whate >sr :hey are, they appear to b ts,sp selfish
and nj iicious'' And, to cap the Gilman -
linda 70 +Ia ool1opo oS a N SC ob;ack Of FL vor;f;cm apd
., a gift attac ling to the Department of Public In
~strnctioh, as is generally believed, SC.
Your use of the word haze indicates that you refer
to the latest change. But the allusion, in the next
senter !, to the Opening of a college, y renders it
uncerts ain to uchaf change you refer. If it be that of
1854, : s enough to say that those who had studied
the sut..ac in ali its bearings, had caught an idea of
progress, AID did what they honestly believed the
tines 4 anarded of them. The college is far from
having be4n the offspring of a single mind, or "a
gift attasJing to the Department of Public instruc-
ton" The insinuation is utterly unworthy of the
source i. which it comes, and a libel both upon
rlany 9 the best minds among our people and upon
the pr" Ident and professor of the institution, for
both of yhom there were not wanting posts of dis
It's motion. The sacrifices which they made in ac-
ceoting the places which they occupy forbid the sus-
r.c;oa that they are the subjects of favoritism.
= ie,her those who founded the college acted prema-
/ rely or not, it is far too early to say. Other col
leges have seen darker days than this has vet seen,
have been snpBGed with less competent instructors,
sd have had students with more superficial prcpar-
ation. One good, at least, seems to have already re-
suited from it; it pretty effectually stopped, for the
time, the tide of emigration. Besides, 10 one who
knows anything about schools, and desires progress
in them, will say that the college has not been a far
better school than the Royal School was, in which
TIE aeachers-for there were two-were necessitated
10 become professors of a little of everything, from
4, ., c, up to Latin, Greek, and the fine arts; or
thar the Punahou School under its system could ever
havc been.
I,a., if the reference is, as it appears to be, to the
chenge of one year since in the Royal School, that by
which it became nothing more than an Anglo-Ha-
waiian school, then, 50 behold, how great a matter
a little fire kindleth - A few native boys have rem
dered everything concerning schools 'chaotic, 'form-
less ard void 70 Why, forsooth Because eve are
without any select school for boys" As though
girls were of no account! As though Nature, had
she intended boys and girls to be educated separately,
Won ~ SAAiDeome way, have indicated the fact
But, to the change. 1t was one of absolute necessity.
You, probably, are not aware how the old man to
whom you refer jaded his nag in efforts to prevent
Sncn q catastrophe. l1au you WltneSSel MS zeal ana
his { flourish of trumpets,'' you might have sus-
pected that he hoped to extinguish a stream of molten
lava! You seem not to know how the teacher, dis
heartened and disappointed NJ losing the pupils to
whom he was most attached, began to look about him
for a thousand dollars, mere or less, with which to
be on his s~swinding way back to New England,
where the humblest labors are duly appreciated.
What, then, becomes of the s~elfshness which prompt
ed thschange complainedIof! And what kind of in
righteousness can be deduced from a stern neces-
sty.
Perhaps the editorial is not yet understood. 1t
may be yea are only lecturing the parents of those
pupils who would not rally at such a " flourish of
trumpets'' for the support of a school for which the
governments furnished a "local habitation and a
name,'' and which they might easily have controlled.
If SO, possibly ssthe reasons for the change are no.
easily gwen You may have limited at the true
reasons, and you may motive do not profess to
know. Our estimate of them as ~neighbors and as
citizens warrants the presumption that they had rea-
sons, which to them were sufficient to justify the
withdrawal of their support from the school.
Mr.. Editor, this subject of popular education is a
great subject; and, if pursued, will lead us on till
we find ourselves in " wandering mazes lost" 1t
wes intended, in this communication, to take further
notice of the apparent antagonism to it in which you
have placed your paper, and also to notice that OBJ
lection to the establishment of a college which is
based upon q want of free preparatory schools.
1t ought to be known that our schools, good, bad,
and Indifferent, are little more than preparatory.
Even the college is a college for but four young men.
if we ae rightly informed. al our schools, if we
mistake not, are as free to all to enter as any one can
desire, except in the matter of tuition. We would
that they were free also in this particular. But this
would, undoubtedly, involve a system of property
taxation which teachers would be glad to see, but to
adyocat shich we suspect would require some moral
courages and cost you not a few of your subscribers.
But, before such o system once established. private
and seleat schools would vanish like the dew before
the NOR i 1g sun. Yours, &C.,
al MAGISrER.