The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-01-18

they do. have occasional holidays when
a marriage takes place or when the birth
| day of Confucius or of some great idol
is celebrated.
IN south China the tuition fee Is from
81 TO SIS year for each pupil. AS each
teacher has from IL to 20 pupils, you can
| see that at most he gets only IS a month
! for his work; and often he. receives not
more than SO or s4. 1t is work indeed
| to teach a Chinese school. 1t is very try
! ing on the nerves and on the ears, too,
| | should say, for in Chinese schoolrocm
every pupil studies at the top of his
voice. The more noise the children make,
| the better they are supposed to be learn
| ing. Silence is a sure sign of idleness.
''The little student goes to school on the
| first morning with a present In his hand
| for the teacher, and on entering the
| schoolroom he bows his little shaven head
| till 1t touches the floor. He is soon called
| to the teachers desk for his first read
ing lesson. He will have no spelling les
sons, for in the Chinese language each
character stands for sound which is
in itself a word.
THE little beginner stands before the
teacher, who shouts the first sentence.
He sounds each of the three or four
, words very carefully, as the words have
/ tones, as in music. These tones, In addi-
ton to the pronunciation make the Ian
guage very difficult for a foreigner and
make the little beginners task a long one
He faithfully repeats this first sentence
in chorus with his classmates. When
the children return TO their seats they
continue to shout the lesson they are
learning and they sway their bodies to
and fro. The teacher calls them to re-
cite, and they turn their backs to HIM
and close their books so that there may
be no depending on the printed characters.
A disobedient child is punished by being
whipped in the hand with bamboo pad
die or by being made tqA stand In
corner.
"The afternon session is devoted chiefly
to writing This is an endless task for
every word is represented by a different
character, and some of these symbols
require 80 strokes of the writing brush.
TN the Chinese education there are
three degrees of four years each. The
average common school includes only the
first degree. The examinations for grad
uation or the comforting CT these de-
grees consists principally of writing es-
saws on the classics. The Chinese have
the greatest respect for learning. Some
times the men continue competing for
their degrees until they have reached
70 years.
''When a student attains a degree,
tall, ornamental pole is erected to his
honor in front of his home. 1t Is said
that half the men in China are educated,
out this is doubtful. Few Ct the older
women can read, but girls schools are
growing more common and the present
generation will show larger percentage
of educated women, Educational methods
are being improved and are changing at
last from the stereotyped form that has
been followed for ages.
'',rhe school hours are from to 4.
The poor and middle class children have
only two meals a day, one shortly be-
fore they go to school and the other
upon their return home. Their favorite
games are shuttlecock and kite flying.
This is the average heather school.
The better schools and the Christian
schools are not included in this sketch"