The Hawaiian gazette., 1881-06-22

The remarks of President Jones at the
anniversary meeting at Punahou deserve
careful thought. To our mind his speech,
though he asked for no funds, that not
being in the scope of the address he had
to make, was as strong an appeal for the
necessity of funds for his own or any in
stitution as could well be made Nothing
can be truer than the words, 1--WE have
had to teach chemistry without labora-
tory, astronomy without a telescope,
natural philosophy without apparatus,
zoology without proper appliances" and
still more true are the following, "One
teacher had to do the work which was
given to three or four in Yale or else
where" It is these two points which
have initiated so seriously against the
complete success of higher education in
these Islands. We know of no institution
on these Islands which is properly fitted
up with what, in the present day, are
necessary apparatus for carrying on scien-
tific education even OF a most elementary
character; and scientific education to be
worth anything must not depend on books,
it must depend upon practical experiment
or illustration. To depend upon mere
book work is to lose the very essence of
modern scientific education. To simply
load youthful memory with certain facts,
which it has to take on faith, and which it
may retain or not as the case may be-in
fact, to use General Comly's illustration,
to cram knowledge into little sacks-is
really to do less good than to study
classics as they used to be studied. There
Is less mental effort required to memorize
a couple of pages, we will say upon sound,
or the theory of eclipses, than there is in
unraveling twenty lines of Euripides or of
Terence: the one calls forth the exercise
of memory solely, the other requires
thought. besides. mere care and attention
But give the scientific instructor appa-
ratus, let those who are learning as
tronomy use the spectroscnpe, and become
practically acquainted with the wonders
moons. let the students of natural phi
losophy have the laws of falling bodies
illustrated by Attwood's machine, let
the followers of chemistry have a prqe-
tioal knowledge of the action of gases and
acids by sometimes performing expert
ments themselves; and then scientific edu-
cation is valuable-far more valuable than
any other means which we may use to
train the human mind. 1t trains the pupil
to think he must think.
The other point which President Jones
made, viz, that here one teacher has to do
the work of three or four at Yale, merits
considerable attention. 1t is not only the
work of three or four. but six or seven, we
would be rather inclined to say. In all
the best educational establishments which
we are acquainted with in the States,
England, and in the continent of Europe,
when once past the mere elementary
education, certain lines of teaching are
laid down for each set Of teachers; there
are the classical, mathematical, and scien- |
titic staffs, with frequently an additional
staff for modern languages. Here we have
constantly. the same individual teaching |
classics, mathematics pure and mixed, |
modern languages, sciences, the rudi- |
ments of education, with a little instrle- |
ton in music, political economy, and |
elocution thrown in. When we visited |
PunahOu during the examinations we /
could notice that such was the case there, |
and In our public schools the demands |
upon a general versatility are even greater. |
To remedy these things money is required, /
and we hope to see that money literally /
supplied to the institution which is now 1
making an appeal for it. Good education
is thing that cannot be made to "pay"
directly. All large educational establish
ments want either State funds or endow-
ments at their backs Education is not n
matter to be counted up at so many dol
lars and so many cents on one side the
ledger, balanced Immediately by like
amount on the other; it is, or ought to be,
q national investment of capital which in
after years viii bring tenfold increase
in the shape, not of mere money, though
hat comes too, but in the high moral
standing, the honor, the thorough mental
grip of its inhabitants, which viii make
hem pride to the nation and match for
III the world