The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1885-08-01
SATURDAY, AUG. /, 1886.
THIS EVENINGS DO,NCS.
Yosemite Skating Rink z.
Central Park Skating Rink, z.
OUR SCHOOLS.

After the series of exhibitions
which were given by the city schools
previous to the holidays, the merits
of the schools generally, and the
work done in them, have been vari-
ously criticised. 1t is but proper
that public institutions of every
kind should be well known, fully
understood and carefully discussed
by the people. 1t is very important,
especially, that Taxpayers should
know whether the school funds are
squandered on the development of
humbug, or applied to the advance
ment of an education that is of real
commercial, intellectual and moral
value to the nation. If the schools
are honestly educating the people;
if they are instructing the future
citizens of the kingdom in that
knowledge which is power, and
which invests its possessor with
more true dignity than can be con-
ferred by rank or office; then they
are fulfilling their proper mission,
and drawing the public revenues
into the channels where they will
certainly do the greatest good to the
n"n,,1A..,- IT'nat the schools
OF this city are conducted in the
manner best calculated to produce
these results, we are not in a posi-
tion either to assert or deny. But
what we can say of the government
schools is that their methods are
generally in the line Of the most
advanced educational systems in the
world. AS to results, of course no
one can pronounce in advance. But
any person who has taken the
trouble to examine their internal
working from day to day cannot be
blind to the fact that the minting
of genuine educational coin is the
objective point of the teachers
efforts. This estimate is certainly
not made on the basis of the pre-va-
cation exhibitions. Whether it was
distinctly and definitely announced
or not, it is no less fact that these
exhibitions were not intended to re-
present the educational work of the
schools. There are, doubtless, many
persons impressed with the absurd
notion that the school work of
year or term is expected to be
concentrated in an afternoons thea
trical performances. The teachers
who are thus misjudged may well
appeal from Caesar uninformed to
Cesar informed" Terminal sex
hibitions," so-called, may be taken
to mean simply nothing at all, be-
yond the smartness, natural and
acquired, of the individual per-
formers. And smartness is not
education. 1t is not even ability.
Smartness may be exceedingly
smart, and yet be co-extensive with
rascality, or with intellectual va
Guilty. The solid acquisitions of the
pupil, during the year, are not those
that come to the front on "exhibi-
tion" days. These acquisitions are
to be judged by inspections, made
under different circumstances, and
at other times. To any parent or
taxpayer who is desirous of ascer-
tanning the quality as well as the
quantity of education given in the
public schools, the most satisfactory
way to investigate the same, is by
personal visitation. The doors are
always open, and visitors are GER
tain of being cordially welcomed
and entertained, in every case, with
(" the best that the house affords. !"
Visits to the schools stimulate both
teachers and pupils to work, under
the inspiring incentive that their
efforts are recognized to be of suffi-
cient importance to merit, at least,