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Show - 38 - of our work should make for themselves an intimate, detailed study of the-system now in force and keep steadily informed of the new changes which are taking place in that system from day to day. We should work in closest harmony with it, but at the same time we need to see deep enough to know its weaknesses and defects, as it is these which, while following the general outline, we neeJ to offset in our work. It may be well to note some of these which especially strike a western observer as he goes from school to school. Of these we would note, 1 . The inability to complete. A good beginning is made in many things but they never finish them. 2. The ironclad uniformity of all schools under government surveillance. 3. The poor pedagogical qualities of the majority of the textbooks, and th ± constant change of the same. For instance the Readers have been changed three times in twelve months by order of the national Board of Education. This means great expense to the students as the old ones can not be used again. 4. There seems to be a belief that efficient results are to be obtained from having an expensivs plant ralher than from a competent teacher. 5. Knowledge is sought for, mental effectiveness underestimated. 6. The predominence of lectures over recitations. In the vast majority of cases, altho the teacher has revised his curriculum, he has not revised his methods of teaching. With very few exceptions, if you take away from him his textbook, the teacher is helpless. 7. L^~*t-f of discipline, especially in the moral discipline of the school. 8. There is little* co-oi>eration between the members of the staff of a school. 9. The Princio^ls of schools are not the intellectual center of the school, nor the inspiring and stimulating force among the students they should be. They have apparently much work to do outside the school, are frequently absent, and sometimes do not teach at all. 10. The chief defect is, the very small supply of really good teachers, and the large number of unqualified tea-hers employed. Nepotism and graft frequently give a wholly incompetent man a good position while a better man has to take a lower place. 11. The teachers migrate continually. 12. A large number of teachers do not continue their mental development after they begin to teach, and there :s no effort to hold them to steady mental growth. 13. Education should be directed to equipping the youth of the country for their part in a self-governing and representative community, but on the contrary the old principles of an ethical feudalism are still taught. 14. The entire system of education is under the central government. The result is that the corruption to be found there, and the commercialism rampant in society are undermining the foundation of education. Less than one-fourth the number of boys are in school in this field that were studying four years ago. In many villages there are no schools at all. Teachers are dishonest and corrupt often, so the cost of running the school is exhorbitant. 15 The last point we note is the failure of moral teaching. "More than all else it is the whirlpool created by the inrush of Western ideas and the breakup of old standards that is wrecking so many Japanese and Chinese youth. The transfer of the seat of moral authority from Confucius to the individual conscience has been so sudden that many a man1 has been killed morally by the shock." |