685948-1879-Education-Annual-Report- — Page 6

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THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 2ND APRIL, 1879.

vogue in England and in English schools, is here

even more glaring. The experience of centuries

has taught the Chinese a method of teaching based

on the peculiarities of the Chinese language. As

it is a language with tones, it is considered an

imperative necessity, all over the Empire, that

boys should read and repeat their lessons aloud.

This is prohibited in the Central School. As the

Chinese writen language is devoid of an alphabet

and consists of 44,000 different characters, 6,000 to

8,000 of which are indispensable for the require-

ments o an educated man, and as there are no

plicated inflections taxing the intellect, it is

an indisputably patent fact that an acquaintance

with the written language of China depends al-

most exclusively on the cultivation of a good

memory. For this reason it has been found ne- cessary in every school in China to give to tech-

nical memoriter exercises an unusual amount of time, and as boys differ far more widely in elasti-

city of memory than in range of mental compre- hension, collective teaching in reading lessons is considered impractical in China, and boys are taught to read Chinese individually, going on,

each his own way, as fast or as slow as his memory

will carry him. Whilst therefore in all the schools

in China class teaching is reserved for explanation of the classics, for teaching copy-writing and com- osition, it is applied in the Central School even the teaching of reading, in a modified form.

consequence is, that the results of Chinese

ing in the Central School are extremely and the teachers themselves, two of whom

graduates, are thoroughly dissatisfied with system adopted. An English bo

who had been 7 to 8 years in the Centi. School

who came to me t her day with a certifi-

te from the Acting

ttainments in trans

TO, ITUL

English, to be "excelent," he having

smart

er stating his

'nese into

ived 59

parks out of 60 at the last annual examination

in this branch of study, could not read such sim-

pl characters as which Chinese

irls, after three years' teaching, wrote from dic- tion under the eyes of His Excellency the

vernor. And the best Chinese boys in the

ool, when I gave them a passage from one

Chinese reading books, which had been rea explained in class, to translate into English

alowing them to use Chinese-English Dictiona- ries, could not do it without being allowed the use of the Commentar And when that was placed in their hands to none could translate the passage correctly, and every one showed that even the Chinese Commentary was unintelligible to them. It is my conviction that if Cinese is to be taught properly in the Central School it must be taught according to Chinese and not ac- cording to foreign methods.

As to religious teaching in the Central School, I noticed myself, and the Chinese masters ac- knowledged in conference, that the teaching given in the Central School is really not secular teach- ng, pure and simple. In English reading lessons, s are used which contain religious lessons, se are invariably skipped. The fact that

則删除不教

者照做監院意見在大書院教習華文若欲妥當則莫如依華人之法教華文效西人之法而教也 誦讀之古文「以試驗大書院最高班之華童亦准伊用英華字典及古文評註竟亦未見有能妥譯且其間多有未明註解之意 十九分矣而以成化年製四字試之竟不能讀無何試以嘗讀唐書三载之女孩. 為此四字做監院亦嘗用尋常業師講解學童 年之久近日持有署掌院荐書來見敝監院在該荐書内言此童由華文譯英文工夫礼妙他去歲杪考甄別時按六十分計已得五 實少也在院掌教華文之師内有門秀士二位伊亦不悅如此教法又有一英人小子天資極厚聰敏過人嘗在大書院肄業七八 路惟講解經書摹字作課則有同時合作一班者耳而大書院教小子讀書亦用此分班之法故亦難怪教習華文之功效無多獲益 而天聰之不同與記性之不同又稍有差別是以業師咸知不能律以班次務照其資質之高下記性之强弱導之循序漸進以行其 記性凡知其中趣味者未嘗有以斯言爲河漢也故在中國書塾訓蒙用日積月累之法教以恆心養其記性但孩童資質各有不同 千字甚爲扼要凡爲教師之人必須留心記憶而莫能舍棄者且華文無變化之句語纏繞之文法如西國文字然故學華文最要是 書必須誦讀焉但在大書院禁止讀書之聲惟有觀書之法况華言又無字母如外國而四萬四千字異而不同者之中有六千或八

教

有