Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1901-02-27
HAwAIrs COUNTRY BOYS.

OF all the reports rendered by the
department of education none is sc
pithy and strikes so forcibly at the
heart of the situation as that of s. Ke.
liinoi. Normal Instructor of the Maui
circuit. One of his most appropriate
paragraphs reads thus:
There are today great many
people interested in finding a solu-
ton to the problem of the boy who
is more successful at playing the
ukulele than at his lessons; who
is fonder of street walking than
of poi-pounding or taro planting:
whose ambition is to be good
singer so that he can join the
night MINISTRIES or go serenading:
who is not really bad, but who is
a nuisance.
This undesirable product is
partly the result of influences out
side of school, over which. the
teacher has very little. II any. con-
troll. The vicious influences of
some country towns are strong
enough to vlsibly affect the school
work of some children. and some
times of the whole school: it Is
then that the teachers have their
hardest fight. not so much in max.
ing the children docile and learn
ed. but in suppressing their mania
for gambling, their desire for night
parade and the consequent inclina-
ton to shirk work the next dav
and other tendencies to wrong
doing.
II Is the old problem of the boy
more particularly the country boz
which has not been solved by our fore
fathers and our descendants will likel,
continue wrestling with It till the enc
Of time
1t will not be solved fully by The
common schools. though this valuable
institution will assist To reach this
boy, mot really bad but who is a nui.
sance, the seeker after better things
must go to the home. This naturally
leads him to the surroundings Of the
home.
What has this Territory to offer FOL
home surroundings in the country dis.
tricts that will raise the standards oi
its young men? What has been done
to create population that will give the
boys more serious view OF life?
The principal factor in the home
surroundings In country districts at
the present time Is the plantation with
its proportion of ignorance and vice
about a thousand to one of intelligence
and progress. Practically nothing Is
done to improve the surroundings Of
the home so far as immigration Is con-
ccrned. Our schools and our churches
have a benehcent influence but Il is mp
hill work ut best as Mr.. Keliinoi has
set forth.
An intelligent and progressive COM
munity joins with its teachers. takes
pride in its boys and furnishes evening
attractions that keep the young people
interested In instructive topics though
II may be in the form Of amusement.
There h a community interest In i'm
provement that yields readily to the
leaven of the school and the church.
What have these teachers to draw on
among stolid Orientals. thoughtless
negroes or ignorant Porto Ricans. who
dominate the surroundings Of the
home. The material to work upon is
worse than crude. 1t is degrading
Teachers have n right to beco me pes
simlstc and discouraged.
What can be dcGc to improve the sit
uatioT? II rests entirely with the peo-
pie who are building the churches and
paying for the maintenance of the
schools With them rests the power to
improve the standards of citizenship.
TO improve the surroundings OF the
home. by refusal to allow the solicited
immigration of degraded people or
those of low order of intelligence.
Until this refusal becomes an actual
positive fact, then and not till then
will the country teachers begin to see
an end to discouraglng up hill work,
Under a continuance of present condi-
lions we may expect the boy to 90
beyond the borders OF a nuisance and
become really bad