The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-06-28
School Savings Banks.

The Educational Bureau of the Depart
ment of the Interior is doing good work of
late in the collection, compilation and pub
lication of statistics of schools and pro-
gress of education throughout the studying
world. The latest bulletin issued by the
Department contains accounts of the es-
tablishment of the school system of Belgium
and its progress since the separation from
the Netherlands fifty years ago, of the be-
ginnings and present status of education in
the island of Malta, and of that singular and
commeDdable French idea, the School Saw
ings Bank. M. Dulac, teacher at Mans,
established the first bank of the kind in
1884 and the idea was taken up by Italy ten
years later. The plan is now in practice in
Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium.
Belgium adopted the system in 1866. In that
year M. Laurent, professor at the Universi-
ty of Ghent, called a meeting of some of the
directors of the city schools He told them
that saving must be taught, like virtues, by
practice. Children are the best agents of
social reform. The future laborer must
learn the great importance of small savings.
While small savings are of great value to all
the children, they are especially so to the
children of the poor, who receive more pen
nies than larger coins, and to whom the hab-
it of saving will be the ooly means of sue
cess in later life.
M. Laurent thoroughly explained his
plans to the directors, and he then went
from school to school, to give the children
lessons of economy. In October, 1866, two
communal schools of Client had each saw
ings bank, and, thanks to the encourage
ment on the part of the communal council,
the city school commission, and two liberal
societies, the savings banks have been intro
duced into all the city schools. OF the As
600 pupils of these schools, more than 49,
600 have deposits, each exceeding one franc.
From Client the savings banks spread over
the whole country, and the Belgian system
was later introduced in several places in
Germany, Holland, and Italy.
The following is the method of NJ NAL
arce in France: After having made arrange
,ments with the nearest savings bank, the di-
rector of the school informs his pupils that
he is ready to receive their small savings
1.-THE amount of the deposit must not exceed
8 francs), and that as soon as the deposits
amount to one franc he will transfer them
to the regular savings bank. The director
fixes day in each week, when, at the be-
ginning of the school, deposits will be re-
ceived. He has before him register, in
which he enters the names of depositors and
the amount deposited. Each pupil keeps a
duplicate account on single sheet of paper,
with sufficient columns for the whole school
year.
The above is the simple process as far as
the school room is concerned. The tran
sactions outside of the school room, the re-
lations with the savings banks, are also very
simple. In the beginning of every month
the teacher adds the deposits of every pupil,
and in case they exceed one franc he de-
posits the even francs at the savings bank
and keeps the amounts of less than one
franc on the register of the school savings
bank. The bank books of the depositors are
kept by the teacher as long as the pupils at
tend school. When pupil leaves school,
the book is handed over to his parents or
guardians. No pupil can withdraw a part
or the whole of his deposit without the con-
sent OF his parents or guardians.
In spreading an account of the theory and
practical workings of this system the Bu
reau of Education doubtless seeks tn excit re-
public sentiment in its favor in this coun-
try. The plan is certainly one worthy of
study if not of imitation.