5i8 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



Save for religion, law, literature, and medicine, as in the old 

 days, only the students destined for those vocations should be com- 

 pelled to take the classic side. That our boys think for themselves 

 in this matter, is shewn by a question put to me by a youth during 

 a machine-construction drawing lesson. He is attached to one of 

 our colleges, and his inclination, supported by his father, is towards 

 the Engineering Profession. Evidently he was turning over the 

 utilitarian value of his different studies, when he asked : " What is 

 the use of Latin to me? " The only practical answer I could give 

 to suit him was, " That it will help you to pass your School 

 Higher." In the course of the lesson attention had been drawn to 

 the connection between Physics and Engineering. The boy saw the 

 advantage of the time, as far as he was concerned, spent in studying 

 physics, and the disadvantage or waste of time spent on subjects not 

 bearing on his profession. Perhaps it is not so much " system " or 

 code that is at fault, for, after all, it is the teacher that makes codes 

 and systems successful. H our teachers could and would show the 

 relation between school-work and business, there would be fewer 

 complaints about idle, inattentive children. Nor should we overlook 

 the too often stultifying actions of Inspectors, who from their lofty 

 pinnacle, have the opportunity of taking a broad survey of education, 

 and so should be able to advise teachers what is best educationally 

 for the district, yet by their methods of Inspection, make a dull 

 system of education duller. One can hardly credit 20th century 

 Inspectors caring only for the 3 R's. Yet that is too often so. Had 

 the fourth R — Drawing — been included, it would not seem so bad. 

 This anxiety over the 3 R's, and the cramming system to get a glib 

 facility in them, too often give rise to a distaste for those subjects, 

 with a result that the pupil, once freed from school control, throws 

 studies to the winds, gives up reading, and is extremely loth to put 

 pen to paper. It is lamentable to note the poor attendance at the 

 various evening classes. Further, how few read books in our 

 libraries outside the fiction class, and it is surprising to find that the 

 bulk of those who go in for improving literature are of foreign 

 extraction and education. 



After the war, in the Transvaal Colony, there was a great oppor- 

 tunity of giving to that country an educational system equal to, or 

 superior to, anything in the world, because there was the past and 

 present experience of the world's systems to profit by. Yet we find 

 custom and tradition too strongly adhered to, and old methods are 

 perpetuated. Theory without practice is still the order of the day. 



If there be one subject more than another which needs stripping 

 of sentiment and the pandering to faddists, it is the subject of 

 Drawing. 



Nowadays there seems to be a tendency to attempi to teach Art 

 before the Alphabet of Art, namely. Drawing, is mastered, and little 

 or no attempt is made to fit it into a child's school's life. Scale 

 Drawing and Geometrical Drawing are elbowed out by Brushwork 

 and Brushwork design. This latter class of work is undoubtedly 



