The "P.R." Letter Bag.
Volume 7, 1896, pgs. 316-317
(The Editor is not responsible for the opinions of Correspondents.)
Dear Editor,--I see in the review of books in the April number of
Parents' Review, that that delightful story "Atelier du Lys," is
recommended for children of twelve and upwards. Surely the reviewer
cannot lately have read the book, for there is much in it which is
certainly better not read by children. In these rapid days when every
kind of knowledge is pushed forward by outside circumstances, surely we
should be more watchful in our own homes. A sharp child of twelve to
fourteen, will want to know what the precipice is, on which Edmee is
standing, in chapter xi, and throughout the book, though most charming
for those of an older growth, there are too many references to the
passion of love, for a child's reading. I have heard mothers say "Oh,
my children read everything." Where, in their case is the care, so
greatly needed now, that the sacred flower of love between man and
woman, should be guarded and spoken of as a holy thing, and not allowed
in their minds too early; and also that no breath of an unholy love
should come in their way? Do mothers realize that once knowledge of, or
curiosity about such things has entered, it cannot be easily
erradicated?
I am, yours faithfully,
A Mother.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Dear Editor,--I shall be very grateful to you if you could kindly insert
this among other letters in Parents' Review. I am anxious to obtain the
following volumes of the Parents' Review, viz., vols I., III., and V.
complete. I hope very much some who don't require these volumes any
longer may see this, and communicate with me about price of them.
Yours faithfully,
(Mrs.) Andrée de L. Foster.
Treledan, Bodmin.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Dear Editor, The provisions of the new Education Bill, which before these lines are in print will probably have passed its second reading, require the strictest scrutiny, and it will need careful amendment in Committee if it is not to do irreparable injury to Elementary Education in this country. It is most necessary to preserve and strengthen the Voluntary Schools, but then, though it is avowedly one of the chief objects of the Bill, it is not likely to be attained, as Mr. Yoxall, M.P., clearly shewed in his speech in the House on the 6th inst., and in an interview published in the Pall Mall Gazette of May 8th. Speaking as an active supporter of Voluntary Schools, he said that the Bill, if passed, would "in the long run, hamper and damage them all, help a few for the moment and permanently benefit none."
Further, the proposed scheme weakens and degrades the School Boards and the Educational Department, which are doing increasingly good work, by its "decentralization," which removes the control of Education from boards elected for this special purpose and puts it upon bodies elected for an infinite number of other purposes remote from Education; it increases the vicious system of grants from the Imperial Exchequer in aid of local rates; and by its provision of duplicate inspection, both by the County authority and by the Educational Department, will add to expense and produce such friction as to render it unworkable.
Finally, it will stir up religious strife in every district, so that
the State will be compelled to decline to provide for any but secular
education. This, I am convinced, is entirely opposed to the wishes of
the vast majority of the parents. What we need is a "levelling up" of
the weaker schools, and this I fear the present Bill is not calculated
to do.
Yours obediently,
∅
[The Editor would be very glad to receive letters discussion both sides of this most important question.]
~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ * ~ *
Dear Editor,--As is so often the case, we must turn to the Forum for the chief Educational article of the month. In "Pestalozzi and Herbart," Dr. Wilhelm Rein, Professor of Pedagogics, in the University of Jena, after reminding his readers that it is just 150 years since the great educator was born at Zurich, gives a scholarly summary of Pestalozzi's principles under the three heads of (1) Intellectual, (2) Physical and (3) Moral-religious culture. He then shows that Herbart, who 100 years ago was a student at Jena, was early filled with an enthusiasm for Pestalozzi's teaching, took the first opportunity that his modesty allowed him to come under his personal influence, and has since been the medium by which the higher schools have been chiefly brought in contact with Pestalozzi, and according to Mager, it is in Herbart that Pestalozzi must be studied. His educational plan is the same as that of his great master, "with the one difference that he elevated pedagogics to the rank of a science by his systematically complete representation" of it.
The English magazines are chiefly concerned with the Educational Bill
now before the House and which has just passed its second reading by an
enormous majority, amongst which may be mentioned the articles in
criticism of its provisions from Mr. Macnamara, Rev. J. Guinness
Rogers, and the Hon. E. Lyulph Stanley in the Nineteenth Century and
Contemporary, and a temperate article in its favour in the Spectator
for to-day.
May 16th, 1896.
Pater Junior.
Proofread by LNL, Nov. 2020