The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1909-03-25

THE RACE FACTOR IN EDUCATION.
Editor Advertiser: A very pertinent
query that arises in the mind of one
observing educational work in a cosmo-
politan sehool-population is this-What
are the reactions Of these children, of
such diverse nationalities, to the school
curriculum? Is the same curriculum
equally good for all of thems Do the
children of one race progress as rapid
ly through this fixed curriculum as do
those of another7 In brief-of what
Importance, in education, is this race
factor?
Before this question can be even par.
TALLY answered several important quail
ifcations must be understood In the
first place, our school curriculum is es-
sentially and predominatingly Anglo
Saxon. Its ideas and ideals, its subject
matter and expression forms are those
of the English people. So, at the very
outset, We find this great difference be-
tween the child whose home is English,
and the child whose home is, for ex-
ample, Chinese. The school work of
the English child continues and supple
ments the home life of that child. The
home and the school unite in giving
a comparatively unbroken training, the
language, the general atmosphere, the
ideals of the one are also those of the
other. The child is sat home' in
school. With the Chinese child, however,
very different condition exists. The
language of the home is not the Ian
guage of the school; the habits and
customs, the general atmosphere, the
ideals of the school are not those Of
the home. The school is strange
place, and the statements that .teaeh-
err makes are not necessarily the
same as those that the father and
mother make. The child has two
schools, which are uneonseiously more
or less antagonistic. Even under the
best of educational policies, the school
tends to somewhat ALLEVIATE the child
from the home, and this is most true
when the home is of raee-character
entirely different from that of the
school.
Secondly, the language of the school
is English. Not only must the Chinese
child comprehend and master the ideas
and ideals of a foreign people, but he
must do so in foreign language. The
handicap is double. Not only the spirit
of the institution, but the form Of the
schooling, is foreign. The Chinese boy,
who speaks his own language at all
times outside of school hours, must
keep pace with the American lad, who
speaks only the language of the school.
These conditions existing, one might
easily conclude that the white child
progresses much more rapidly In his
studies than those of other natio-lali'
ties. Familiar with the yernacular, ac-
eustomed to the general ideas of the
school. for they coincide with those OF
his home. he should uniformly surpass
his sehoofmates of other nations, who
labor under this double drawback.
But, to our surprise, we find that
such is by no means the case. Inyes-
tigation reveals that the white boy
does not mentally outstrip in his school
work, the boys of other races. Indeed
| the converse is very frequent, and we
| find that the best scholars in any grade
are of other races.
Our analysis of this unexpected con
dition shows us that there is combined
with the "superior mental powers OF
the white school child, very frequent