The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1904-01-13
Kamehameha Schools.
Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. 12, 1904.

| Honolulu, Hawaii, Jan. u, 1904.
| Editor Advertiser: Your remarks in
| Saturdays Advertiser deserve consid-
GRAFTON by both teachers and parents.
| What you suggest as to training for
| those who do not expect to go to col
lege is being done as far as possible
| by both the High School and Oahu.
Cannot you get the head of each of
these institutions to tell the public
| what is being done for the boys and
girls who do not expect to enter coll
lege? The public don't care to look
through a regulation yearly report for
this information; and so go without it.
But it would make interesting reading
just now, and people would be glad to
read it.
There is no other power on earth so
strong as public opinion. And what
Oahu and the High School and the
public schools need most of all, is a
public opinion that knows what is be-
ing done and what is needed. Such 4
public opinion will see to it that money
is appropriated to train its boys and
girls for the work they are to do.
I would like to have two other mat
ters discussed. First, this overworking
study.
Suggestions are often worth more
than a long article. This is one reason
why I make suggestions. And only
suggestions are offered now.
But first let me say that I have no
personal quarrel with teachers for
overworking my children. My children
are standing the strain, for reasons.
getting as much knowledge and power
as is good for them, at their age And
L will even confess that the way I /
know how and why teachers overwork
their pupils, Is because did the same.
till learned better. 1t is a hard les
son to learn and some teachers never
learn it. Even public opinion will not
change their opinion. But to overload
a horse or an engine or a pupil is poor
economy of time and strength. 1t
shows a lack of judgment on the part
of the person in charge of the loading:
and the results come back upon that |
person as we'll as upon the horse, the
engine or the pupil.
The one thing | have learned is that
the university, the public and employ
ers want men and women of Judgment, |
accuracy and persistence. These quail |
!, Z
ing. I will not undertake to say here
what this proper training consists in. /
But it does not consist in overworking /
the pupils in our schools. If a driver |
insisted on overlooking his team, he |
would be dismissed. If an engineer |
persisted in overlooking his engine, he |
would be dismissed. A driver must |
show judgment. An engineer must !
show judgment. But some teachers /
know no limit to the amount of load. |
And their excuse? THE higher schools
require a given standing 1.-The uni
versities require a given preparation"
The mistake is in the judgment in
the materials that will best
develop the pupils L am not trying
here to say what this material should
be; but it is not the mass of stuff the
pupils so often get. In Mathematics
and the Sciences the principal danger
is in giving problems that are too Diff
feult. The results are memorizing of
solutions or dead failure. on the part
of a large part OF the class. If a pupil
lacks mathematical ability, why should
he be '.nagged at through a whole
course in Mathematics.
But when we come to the work in
History and Literature we find mass
OF details where only the careless
teacher is lat home" and sure of him
self What with dates without num-
Der: and names of places long ago but
dust; and the miserably small ambi-
tons and successes or failures of men
and women, whose very existence
might better be left unknown; there is
no limit TO the details that exhaust
the pupils body and mind, and pa