THE CUBA REVIEW 



17 



EDUCATIONAL MATTERS 



COMPULSORY ATTENDANCE LAW WANTED 



SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS 



CUBA NEEDS MORE SCHOOLS 



"The Cuban school system established by 

 General Wood has not, and could not, 

 have been improved upon," said Ricardo 

 de la Torre, ex-mayor of Havana and 

 representative in the Cuban Congress from 

 Havana, in a recent interview in a Xew 

 York paper, "though much has been gained 

 in experience and in details and mode of 

 teaching. Only about 60 per cent of the 

 children of Cuba between the ages of 6 

 and 12 years now attend school, n,Vnnber^ 

 ing in all about 130,000 pupils, with 4,000 

 teachers, and 3,200 schools. We want a 

 law to compel all children to attend school, 

 but before that can be done we must build 

 more schools to provide for them. We 

 also intend to introduce the American 

 high school system. The only higher edu- 

 cation provided by the state now is the 

 institute established in each of the six 

 provinces. 



"But I am paying more particular atten- 

 tion to the manual features of education 

 as practiced in this country. I have spent 

 some time in the Boston public schools. 



New York City and Cambridge, and shall 

 look into those of Newark, and the best 

 thing I have found thus far is the system 

 of teaching cooking and washing to girls 

 in the schools of Boston. I think that will 

 be one of ihe greatest additions we can 

 make to our schools for the general wel- 

 fare of the rising generations, and I shall 

 recommend it to the secretary of instr>uc- 

 tion. 



"We have a fair system for teaching 

 boys in manual trades. Later on we hope 

 to introduce some of the higher and more 

 artistic branches I find in common practice 

 here, such as metal work and other more 

 skilled trades, but for the present we must 

 be satisfied with the most practical efforts 

 and await the growth of an elaborate de- 

 velopment. It was very fine in Boston to 

 see the work of the young girls, hats and 

 dresses, but for us just now the domestic 

 arts are more important, so that is why 

 I shall recommend cooking and household 

 work above everything else. Our system 

 now is limited to five grades, so we cannot 

 take in all the courses used here in the 

 public schools." 



Public school in Cuba. There a:e 



liner. '1 awn. white and black ctud/ing together. 



