The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-09-17

the ages of six and fourteen is 1,2Oo,-
600, and the object has been to have
900 of these in the schools at one
time. The primary course requires
three years; thus it will be seen that
if this standard can be maintained for
a period of ten years the greater por-
ton of the coming generation will have
a working knowledge of English, mathe-
mates and geography. The greatest
trouble encountered at the present
time is that the children are coming
in faster than they can be accommo-
dated, the enrolment for 1905 having
reached the astonishing figure of 524,-
600. 1t is proposed to remedy this by
extending the age limit.
THE COURSE OF STUDY.
The course of studies for the primary
grades includes only those of the SIM
plest character, such as English, arith-
metic, ography. industrial work and
! music. The intermediate course in
cludes advanced English, arithmetic,
geography, history, the study of
! plants, animals, and physiology. In
this course the boys are taught agri-
, culture or shop work and the girls are
| instructed in housekeeping. In the
secondary school the pupils may choose
! either literary course, trades, agri-
culture. commerce or teaching. Night
schools are maintained in all the
| trades, so that those who are employed
J during the day may not be debarred
| therefrom. The industrial idea is be-
coming popular in all the Asiatic coun-
| tries and institutions of this sort are
now being conducted in China, Japan,
India, and the Federated Malay States
The hours of school in the Philip
I 49, i
( United States. The session opens here
at half past seven in the morning and
closes for the day at eleven. Most
of the American instructors conduct a
class for native teachers during two
hours of the afternoon. About 500
Americans are now employed here, and
this number will not be materially de-
creased for several years None of the
white teachers are engaged in pri-
mary work, their whole time being de-
voted to intermediate instruction or to
supervising. There are now about
5000 natives teaching in the primary
schools. The Filipino has two quail
ties which are conducive to success as
a teacher. He is patient and SYM
pathetic, but is inclined to be indif-
ferent about keeping regular hours,
and unless constantly watched is not
apt to be through.
1t is fact not generally known that
the oldest school under the American
flag is located in the Philippines. What
is now the University of Santo Tomas
was organized in Manila by Dominican
friars in the year 1911 and members of /
that order are still in control. The
oldest college in the United States is
Harvard, which was opened in 1886. |
William and Mary college of Virginia
was organized in 1898, while Yale was
founded in 1701.
THE WORLDS FAIR EXHIBIT.
The Philippine exhibit at the st. |
Louis Worlds Fair did more toward |
advertising what is being done here |
than all that has been written on the
subject. This exhibit occupied forty |
seven acres of ground and was housed |
in 100 buildings. The manner in which |
Americans fiocked there was an indi- |
cation of the great interest in the ISL |
ands which prevails throughout the |
United States. President Francis said |
that the F'ilipinos were the cover |
shadowing feature of the Fair. The !
records show that ninety-nine people |
out of every one hundred who entered /
the Exposition grounds visited the |
Philippine village. This exhibit cost |
the government ten cents for each |
visitor.
A novel feature of the educational |
exhibit at ST. Louis which is bearing |
splendid results, was the distribution |
of letters written by Filipino pupils to |
boys and girls in America, Canada, |
England and other English speaking |
countries. These We're given to teach
ers who visited the Fair for circula- |
ton among their pupils A register
was kept of all parties TO whom let
tiers were given, ard at the close OF
the Exposition this book contained
Is. 600 names. The correspondence now
going on between English speaking
children and their little brown brothers
across the ocean is both a stimulus to
the use of proper English and an ex-
change of valuable information.
While it is yet too early to judge
what effect education may have upon |
the Filipino. it has been demonstrated
beyond a doubt that he is anxious to
receive instruction and that he is an /
ant pupil John Barrett lost his chance
Continued on page g.