Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1896-10-14
Our SCHOOLS.
a blackboard Etching.
By ANNE MARIE PRESCOTT.

Suhuoy duu ou'OC"tihS h0"'hSh
schools for their children on Mon
day. What mockery! "The
Lords prayer may be repeated;
but, not mandatory, as heretofore"
What fine loop hole for the ag-
nostics, and the infidels! - And
just here, before going further,
we would raise our voice most
earnestly and protest against
growing or already full.grown evil
an the school midst of Hawaii nei,
a cuipable wrong that is not con-
fined to the public schools and
not practised by every teacher
in either public or private. There
are q few exceptions and we wish
to be Just. This evil would not,
for one day, be tolerated in an
English school, or in the schools
of Boston. The longest time given
in the latter to true calisthenics,
in the five hours of daily work,
was five minutes an hour, and it
was quite enough. The gong was
heard, monitors opened every door
and window, and six hundred
pupils were instantly on their
ieet for exercise. But, the exces-
sive folly, the idle, wicked waste,
the wholesale cheat AID robbery
{ of a child's precious time-never
to come to him again and the
loss of which can never be repair
cd, spent in clap-trap; hours out
Of every week, and days out of
every month, counting up fear
ful aggregate in less than a twelve
months, given to what ? Are
these children, think you, to go
through life this hard, practical,
most practical work a-day world,
waving wands, or fans, swinging
clubs, or marching and counter
marching, and mincing to fine
music, etc? Growing vainer,
siilier and more conccited with
every step in the teaching ?
No. They are every one of
them to go through life with
something the same fight others
have gone before them. Sooner
or later they will pass under the
rod" And the sooner all this
child's circus this ''show
thing" is done away
and children are brought down to
the hard pan of concentration,
aid steady application -- to the
cultivation of will power, and
memory, the better for them and
their battle of life and for life. OF
what use is a man or a woman in
the school-room, or anywhere else
for that matter, who is not practi-
cal? There is little time for fool
cry If one would have his child
make his mark" and that should
be every parents aim.
We contend that FIVE hours a
day and from one to two hours of
the evening is none too much to
exact from a boy or girl in the
way of study and recitation.
Granting that the child is we'll
groomed, well-fed and sleeps eight
or nine hours, it is not whit too
much. We are not speaking of
those who are deficient mentally
or physically. We say that not
one hour of this time should
be frittered away. Added to
this, at least one hour of
every twenty four should be
divided up and given to Bible
study, to the catechism, and to the
learning of hymns, canticles and
collects-prayers. If the child
choose to become an intidel or
agnostic in after life that is his
lookout; but he should not be suf-
fered to begin as one, for that is
our lookout; and the cause and
the retribution will be ours. We
shall be taxed in this world for
the prisons, the building of gal
lows and all the rest: and in the
Judgment" "Where is Abel
thy brother?"
"This is pretty plain English"
we hear you say. Yes, my friend,
that is precisely what we under
take. When this point, of re-
ligion, is kept out of sight, re-.
ligiously hid under a bushel, by
= those who dare, in the sight of
heaven, to name themselves the
followers of the Lamb, and from
His lambs would hide the Word
of Life"-would never say in
school-hours, neither allow to be
said; Look up, my child, to the