Nors2.
The success of the Public School for Boys in securing passes for all the pupils entered for the London Matriculation examination on the first occasion on which they had worked for that very stiff scholastic test is worthy of more than a passing. notice.—Overseas boys won sixty-four passes and five of these came to Shanghai Only five candidates passed in the first division and two out-of the five were Shanghai lads, This record honourable alike to the teachers and scholars and Shang-justly be proud of it, for this means that children in Shanghai get an education fully up to the standard of high class: schools at Home, and, by implication. it is no longer necessary for parents to part with their fumil¥ in the tender and formative years to send them Home to be educated. This was one of the chief trials of the resident in the East. It is not so long ago that boys and girls of "teen" age in the Settlement were as scarce as blackberries in December. This exodus of the young people at an interesting period in theft lives was certainly bad for them many' respects, though there are) insuperable reasons why every child should, if possible, take some part of his or her education at Home, They missed parental care at the critical adolescent period and it was i loss that reacted on their whole future, The parents missed ax much, if not more, than children, The business of being a parent is one requiring a high degree of skill and, when entered upon, as it usually is, not only without adequate training but even without serious thought 1 to entail disastrous consequences, Tt an ordinary individual were to take up the practice of medicine as lightly as love-sick couples the duties of wedlock, he would soon find himself in a place where the inmates cease from troubling and the public would be safe from his attentions, Yet, an untrained doctor has not much power to injure the bodies of his patients as unwise parents have to warp, the delicate organism of their child's mind. Parents educate their children but children also educate their parents and the man—still more truly, the woman—who has not watched the unfolding life of his own offspring has missed something in life which prevents him attaining 10 the measure of the stature of perfect man." Therefore the heads of families in Shanghai may rejoice that they are no longer under the necessity of parting with their young folk at an age when mutual companionship is so necessary' for all concerned, The development of the educational policy of the Municipal Council has proceeded in recent years with an accelerated pace.
hhere are men in the Settlement, who cannot be called old, who remember the little school in Peking Road that was run by the Dallas family in what are now prohi toric days, This was taken over by the late George Lanning, under Masonic patronage, until 1886, when it was transferred to Boone Road and became the property of the ratepayers. The splendidly, equipped new Public School for Boys, near Hongkew Park, was opened in 1914 and has already) overflowed its borders and has a juvenile department attached to {the girls' school in Vu-ruen Road. 'The girls' school was transferred from Boone Road to its Western situation in 1923 and then it seemed that it would be years before it would be filled to anything like its capacity. Tt has now its accommodation well occupied and, with the rapid growth: of population-in the Western District, it will soon be like a growing boy] whose elbows are pushing their way through his last year's suit. And this in spite of the fact that} the old Boone Road school has not been discontinued and the Cathedral School for Boys and the girls' school in Yates Road are both in vigorous life. This shows that parents appreciate the improved facilities for higher education offered by the public schools and are not deporting their boys and girls in the approved manner of, some years ago. To this we should add that the development of the education of Chinese boys has expanded pari pass with that} jof their Western schoolfellows. The popularity of the public schools for Chinese shows that these are meeting. the need of {Chinese residents as efficiently as are the schools for foreign children with which we are more familiar, In conclusion we might ask, what of the future? Have our schools in Shanghai reached the limits of expansion and develop ment? The answer to that question depends on the future' status of the Settlement.—The! splendid schools now in evidence owe their existence to the fact that, hitherto, Shanghai has been an oasis outside the maelstrom of Chinese politics and ever recurring civil war. If this happy' condition of affairs is continued, it might be possible to dream of an international university worthy' of the first city of Asia; a position that Shanghai may very easiattain, It the position is reversed and the Settlement passes under Chinese control, its wealth and prestige will be the prize of war in every future conflict. Its fate may well be that Of the once powerful Hanseatic cities or of Venice, still Queen the Adriatic, but now a queen without a crown,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.