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(6.) We consider that even in those four schools in which there are English teachers, European boys cannot secure a proper education. Education should include both the acquirement of knowledge, and also the formation of character. In both these respects we consider that the education of the European children suffers very much from the fact that Europeans and Asiatics are mixed, and the European child has to be educated side by side in the same class with large numbers of Asiatics.
As regards the acquirement of knowledge, this mixture of races operates very injuriously upon the European. The Chinese come to these schools to learn English, not to acquire general knowledge. In his report for 1866, Mr. Stewart, who was the Headmaster at the Central School and Inspector of the Government Schools, wrote: "Nothing seems to find favour with the Chinese which does not bear a market value. Hence the comparative success of the Central School, English being convertible into dollars."(1) The following year "the Principal of St. Saviour's College dwelled especially on proving the difficulties one meets here in educating Chinese. They don't study for the sake of acquiring knowledge, but for the sake of dollars and to enable them to earn money, and the Very Rev. Father anticipated that with very few exceptions we would never succeed in having Chinese conversant with our Sciences, but we must content ourselves with forming clerks and compradores."(2) In his Report for 1899, the present Inspector of Schools explains the more regular attendance at the schools in which English is taught, as compared with the Chinese schools, by the fact that "the education given is a special one having a distinct money value." We do not wish to call in question the wisdom of the Chinese in this matter; but we would point out that in a school in which the majority of boys are Chinese, who come to learn English and not for the sake of acquiring knowledge, the European boy, who comes to acquire knowledge and not to learn English, must be at a very serious disadvantage. That the Chinese boys often do better than European boys in the examinations at such schools does not militate, as it might at first sight seem to do, against this statement; for the Chinese boys have undoubted ability, and, moreover, they far outnumber the English boys, and are of much more advanced age than their European class-mates. The methods of education, moreover, have to be adapted to the instruction of the Chinese, and many an English boy is of necessity kept back whilst instruction is laboriously imparted to those who have a very inferior knowledge of the medium of instruction. The above remarks apply also to the so-called "Foreign Classes in the Queen's College, where Europeans and non-Chinese Asiatics are mixed."
(1) See "Dates and Events connected with the History of Education in Hongkong," p. 13. (2) Ibid, p. 21.
(*) A young English boy who goes to the Queen's College and is placed in a low class is compelled to sit idle under a Chinese assistant, who teaches his Chinese pupils, in the Chinese language. Could any plan be devised more calculated to render a boy listless and inattentive throughout the rest of his school course,
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(6.) We consider that even in those four schools in which there are English teachers, European boys cannot secure a proper education. Education should include both the acquirement of knowledge, and also the formation of character. In both these respects we consider that the education of the European children suffers very much from the fact that Europeans and Asiatics are mixed, and the European child has to be educated side by side in the same class with large numbers of Asiatics.
As regards the acquirement of knowledge, this mixture of races operates very injuriously upon the European. The Chinese come to these schools to learn English, not to acquire general knowledge. In his report for 1866, Mr. Stewart, who was the Headmaster at the Central School and Inspector of the Govern- ment Schools, wrote: "Nothing seems to find favour with the Chinese which does not bear a market value. Hence the comparative success of the Central School, English being convertible into dollars." () The following year "the Principal of St. Saviour's College dwelled especially on proving the difficulties one meets here in educating Chinese. They don't study for the sake of acquiring knowledge, but for the sake of dollars and to enable them to earn money, and the Very Rev. Father anticipated that with very few exceptions we would never succeed in having Chinese conversant with our Sciences, but we must content ourselves with forming clerks and compradores.") In his Report for 1899, the present Inspector of Schools explains the more regular attendance at the schools in which English is taught, as compared with the Chinese schools, by the fact that "the education given is a special one having a distinct money value." We do not wish to call in question the wisdom of the Chinese in this matter; but we would point out that in a school in which the majority of boys are Chinese, who come to learn English and not for the sake of acquiring knowledge, the European boy, who comes to acquire knowledge and not to learn English, must be at a very serious disadvantage. That the Chinese boys often do better than European boys in the examinations at such schools does not militate, as it might at first sight seem to do, against this statement; for the Chinese boys have undoubted ability, and, moreover, they far outnumber the English boys, and are of umuch more advanced age than their European class-mates. The methods of education, moreover, have to be adapted to the instruction of the Chinese, and many an English boy is of necessity kept back whilst instruction is laboriously imparted to those who have a very inferior knowledge of the medium of instruc- tion. The above remarks apply also to the so-called "Foreign Classes in the Queen's College, where Europeans and non-Chinese Asiatics are mixed."
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(') See "Dates and Events connected with the History of Education in Hongkong," p. 13. (*) Ibid, p. 21.
(*) & young English boy who goes to the Queen's College and is placed in a low class is compelled to
sit idle under a Chinese assistaut, who teaches his Chinese pupils, in the Chinese language. Could any plan be devised more calculated to render a boy listless and inattentive throughout the rest of his school course,
མ--་*ཝཱ་༢ ཡཱ ""ན
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