, 1872-02-14
TIE AVIS"
Strisiiauaifa, 81, grriz.
WEDNESDAY, 14rH FEBRUARY 1872
SCHOOL-MATTERS.
Continued.

In DToC6ulIlS lllllU6IS VIC udFb cApIGSSeQ
ourselves freely with regard to our conviction
of the ineficiency of private primary schools.
We shall not waste time or weary our readers
patience by going into details to explain why
we have no great faith in schools of higher
order conducted by private individuals, even
when subsidized by Government, so much less
as we believe the scheme entertained by Gov
eminent to encourage the establishment of such
a school by a subsidy is now abandoned. In
fact we gathered from the Vice-Goyernor'S
lucid speech in the Colonial Council at the first
discussion of the draft containing a proposal to
sUbsidiZe one or more private schools to the
amount of $1,000 per annum, that Government
had only adopted this proposal of the School
Commission in Christiansted in the hope of
bringing the intermnable discussions (shaII We
say "wranglings ?'9 to a close. The draft
went into Committee. What treatment it will
receive there we do not pretend to know. We
shall see at the second discussion. Meantime
we proceed to give you some of the impressions
everybody may receive, and which many actual
" have received at our annual examinations.
We hope in this manner not only TO show you
according to promise in previous numbers the
deficiencies and shortcomings of our tOWn-schOOls
and in the first instance those of ChriStiansted
to which we shall at present, like the draft now
sent into committee, cOnfne ourselves, and, in
the first place, the so-called Burgher-School,
bat also to give some practical hints.
On our entrance we naturally inquire how this
school ranks among other institutions of the
same kind in the island. We are told by a
competent Judge that there is no doubt it ought
to be considered the first. The number of pu-
pill ! 60 more or less and from 7-I5 years Of
age. How many classes {! two of boys and two
of girls. School-fees 81 per month. This
would give the school a monthly income from
fees of $50; but one half of the pupils receive
er8tuitous instruction, SO that the revenue is re-
duced to $50 more or less. About $3.50 are
spent in teachers salaries monthly, giving q de-
felt in round numbers Of $500 to be betrayed
by the Colonial Treasury. The remedy for
this evil, and We acknowledge that it is one, is
in the opinion of the systematic retrencher,
hacked by Den0nlinati0laiist and D0ctrinaires
of all sorts, to kill the whole establishment in
pursuit of shadows and fanthoms abhorrent to
practical men. The point of disagreement
in that camp seems to be the mode of death
One good dose of UNCONVENTIONAL Strychnin, or
several anatomical, economical slashes suffi3i-
cnt to bring about the same fatal term by a
slower process of consumption. Is this, then
the best and wisest method we can adopt! lot
us examine. If we can prove or at least make
it very probable that this school can he made,
we do not say to support itself, but to contri-
butte in a much greater degree to its support,
probably more than / fthe expenses by being
reorganized in such a manner as to produce the
result which, as We have stated, people in limit
ed circumstances who are willing to strain a
point to have their children as we'll educated
as is possible in a small place like this gen
orally aim at, We believe to have done m
'thTng good. For it is our firm conviction
that if the school be not established on such
liberal principles it will have no future prospects
of success but will die the lingering death
alluded to above. J% tic first place.: with re-
gard to the number of pupils, We have always
heard it complained of, and with good reason in
our opinion, that there is no preparatory class.
Parents are NV obliged to send their children
to whatever petty private school they can find,
and are often soreIy troubled to find one, to
acquire what is now required as the standard
of attainment for admittance into the Burgher-
school, and teachers likewise complain of the
too often dollhouse preparation given in these,
just to bring children up to the point required
In reading, writing and arithmetic Let US,
then, have such a class connected with the
school, so that it can receive the child from
the hands of The parents and get a chance to
try If it be not possible, as many teachers now
believe, to succeed better if allowed to begin
with the beginning. . In tic second place The