Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1876-11-09
Education in Belgium.

II ( tN--fN
rural cOmmunes of Flanders. The
city spends layishly upon education,
and the instruction is entirely in the
hands of lay teachers. In, the year
1915, 16,31S children and adults were
under instruction in the elementary
schools directed by the city, in addi-
ton to those being educated in de-
nominatiOnal schools. AT present the
schools are in vacation. They have a
long holiday from the 18th of August
to the end of September. A few pu-
pills are still at work in.the sewing
school Of the Caller Institution. This
is one of the best schools in the town,
and we'll deserves q visit. 1t is a pub
lie elementary day school for girls, to
which is attached an infant school for
200 little children. The low forms
without desks which remain in these
airy rooms show the early age at
which the infants are admitted. For
those whose parents cannot take them
away, dinner is gratuitously provided.
There is d good playground for the
children. The girls school contains
800 pupils. None of those who live in
the city pay anything for their tuition,
but children from neighboring COM
munes pay a few francs per month.
The hours are from 80 to IL 80 and
from / 80 to 4 in the winter, iand
80 in summer. School begins
and ends with prayer, and the
catechism is taught by a priest once a
week. In the upper classes his
tory and geography are taught, al
though the Belgian code only pre-
scribes the teaching Of s'religion,
morality, reading, writing, arithmetic,
the National weights and measures,
and French, Flemish OF German, as
the case may be- Maps, abaci, black
board. devotional pictures, and the
actual measures Of capacity ornament
the walls of the principal, class-rooms,
In lower class, for girls between the
ages of six and eight, the following is
one days work. It will serve as a
specimen: In the morning, prayer,
Flemish, gymnastics, = arithmetic,
writing; in the afternoon, French, OBJ
ject lesson, needle-work, prayer. Sat
urday is half-holiday, and no instruc-
ton is given on Sunday; but on that
day the school-building is used for an
adult class Of 200, who also meet there
in the evening as a night school. 1t
will be seen that little girls in Client
have to be bi-lingual-to learn both
French and Flemish. Their mothers
and fathers speak, as a rule, nothing
but Flemish, a fact which makes
Client perplexing town to foreigners.
The provision as to German in the
article of the code quoted above refers
to some parts of Luxembourg, where
German is the language of the people.
A great many of the children leave at,
the age of eleven, but the
city is trying to keep them till
a later age. There is usual
addition to this institution in the
shape of large Work-room, where
girls who have passed the superior
classes in this school or another are in
structed in millinery al d dress-making,
from one to five in the afternoon, after
attending ordinary lessons in the morn
ing. This half-time system is found a
very successful one. The girls begin
to earn money from the first day they
enter the room. and there is ALWAYS
great competition to be admitted to it.
1t holds sixty girls, at little side tables
for four each, with a large central
table for cutting out. Sewing machines
are at one end of the room. There is no
instruction in cookery, and such in
struction is less necessary here than in
England, because the subject is better
understood at the children's homes.
Another institution, the school bank, |
which the Belgians claim to have in
vented, is established in the school. /
The total deposits in the penny banks
of the schools of Client amounted, in
1915, to no less than AS, 235 francs, in.
vested in 11,797 names. instruction
to the 4, 1875 boys, the $500 girls, the
3,4S1 infants in the free schools, in the /
1878 pupils in the paying schools, and
thes3, 513 adults in the night schools, is
given by a body of ga lay teachers
and assistant teachers. asH a5o
The girls work-room has a more
imposing parallel in the industrial
school, where S21 pupils are in
structed in chemistry, mechanics,
physics, construction, engineering,
geology, accounts, designs, and in the
theory and practice of the manufac- |
lures of the town, which are chiefly
concerned with linen and cotton.
Girls are admitted to the course In de
sign.T Another institution the mid
die class school-contained 40 pupils
in 1875, the Royal Atheneum. 37S. |
There were 500 students in the univer-
sity, and their distribution among the
faculties shows the practical character
of the training sought. Only twenty