The Hawaiian gazette., 1907-06-21

| A. l.. C. Atkinson Secretary of Ha-
wall and Acting Governor, delivered
the following address before the High
School Alumni Association last We'd
rcsday nIglt:
1t is doubly an honor to me to speak
before the alumni and members of the
Honolulu High School because i was
a public school boy and also pupil of
your principal who was then lovingly
referred to as "Old Daddy Scott"
The principal point of attraction and
interest is the fact that so many differ
ent races are being educated side by
side in both our public and private
schools. Out of a total of 21,0OO pupils
of all the schools there are:
Hawaiians and Part Hawaiian. $500
Iortusuese ''''.'''' ''''''''''''''''' foVV
oHliiest '.'''.'''''' -iOV
Porto Ricans, Germans, Scandina-
viass and British. h.............. 900
And those born of American pa
rents only NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 1853
Yet this little Territory ungrudginsly
expends upwards of $1,000 a day for
educational purposes counting every
Sunday, and all holidays. In fact near
ly 100000 a year is spent.
on the mainland there is a tendency
for the public schools to go above the
heads of the people. They are not
common" enough. There has been a
cry to democratize them, to adapt them
more to the needs of the great body
of the pupils, to the range of the aver
age boy or girl who is educated in
them.
The best equipment for an American
citizen is a sound education. And the
true aim Of education should not be
finished scholarship for the few, but
high standard of citizenship for the
many.
Some educators and teachers fear
lowering of ideals or tandards-forget-
full that a public school education is
to fit the mass of the pupils for prac-
| tical duties of life. to bring all to-
gether. 1t is the few that graduate
and, while caring for them and giving
them their opportunity, we must not
forget that the many have to leave
school and begin work before gradual
ing Most of our educational work
should be devoted to giving the best
instruction to those whose education
must be acquired in the shortest time.
Try to teach them what will be useful
and on which they can build later.
1t is not always the clever boy at
school who makes the greatest success
In after life. The dull boys develop
ment may come later; it may take lon
ger for his brain to show intellectual
activity. But ii comes, and because
perhaps of its lack of early activity its
subsequent expansion is the more
rapid.
Give pupils a sound training In Eng
lish, in mathematics, in manual train
ing and in business subjects. and you
will reach the masses who have to earn
their own living, who viii never have,
and never expect to have, the oppor-
tunity for Il college or university edu-
cation. Do not put all the best teach
ers in the highest classes. The best
work in n school house Is done In the
lower classes, where the rudiments are
ground In solidly with accuracy, and
To stay, That accomplished. the ad-
vancement is the easier
Common school training should be
common sense training.
The spirit of the scholar makes the
test In education is its utility. That
comes after we leave school. and the
record of citizenship IN Hawaii today
SHOWS that there has been no failure
In any educational system In the past.
As this Territory grows education mus
keep pace. Work In the mental world
Is as real as Il Is In the physical world.
There is nothing 10 deplore In the
fact that the Increase OF scholars Ia
our school last year shows 5s per cent
~ japanese blood and ! quote the
Governors forthcoming report THAT
Japanese are here probably In large
numbers To remain, Their natural in
crease has been very great and, as
'lEhl years have elapsed since aunsxa-
ton, large numher of the Japanese
children now crowding into our schools
haYu been hnrn under the American
nag, When these reach maturity thay
Nill have The right t0 claim American
citizenship n isI therefore, most lm-
pnFiant lhat lheY should have fnl op.
rNllhniik az becoming equipped with
n a. NJ. .Ha a