Acquiring Knowledge in the Pleasantest Ways: The Cost of Education in Shanghai:
Primary Schools Only Reading and writing and arithmefic. Specially arithmetic. How we used to hate it, tiring long-division, senseless short division,—teachers trying to tell us that two and two always make four, figures without reason, the shortest distance between two points is a straight Li Just because somebody said 80, We went out to see the little!
Japanese children at the Public! School on North Szechuen Road and found them playing chess. The teacher said they were learning arithmetic. In one corner of the room was a big table filled with sand—the sort you remember about} from kindergarten days. Some! twelve year old boys were placing! gayly coloured flags around in it and squinting at distances. They! were learning that straight line is the shortest distance between two points by trying it out. And they did it in the sand with a couple of flags, not on paper. We left the room feeling that even arithmetic has its possibilitic A tiny Japanese doll of a girl bowed to us charmingly and gave us her primer. We pretended that we knew what it was all about and looked at the pictures. The book was practical to say the least, if one may judge from illustrations. We recognized practically all of them: the Bund, a No. 1 motor bus, two Sikh policemen, the Garden bridge, 4 money exchange sign, all of the different varieties of Shanghai coins, 'a group of Chinese soldiers and a machine gun, a banner advertising a sale, a temple, and, just by way, of amusing the six year old mind, one fairy tale picture and a por-cumine. The little girl seemed to be quite happy about it, however, as did the rest of her politely sweet classmates who sat in their—tiny chairs and crossed their wee sandal-_ led feet while they waited for us to get out of the room so that they could go on reading about machine blossoms in a little niche, the Japanese "finishing" school where the little girls learn how to 8 around the tea and cakes correctly and to make the demure little bows of greeting and depar-_ ture. Next to this room is the sewing room where a group of pig-tailed children make their own kimonos and brilliant coloured Knick-knacks. They do it well too, the tiny stitt ches andthe intricate patterns which these small girls placidly conquered made us feel a trifle useless. was empty when we arrived, It is used only twice a week but if they had known that) we were coming the boys would show. There they learn Japanese jin-jiteu and Japanese fencing. They are clever and dexterous and agile and the older bays have been known to give professional jin-fits artists some concern as to their laurels.
But life is not all tea and cakes, kimonos; and la at the school. We were taken into the chemistry and natural history department where a lurid skeleton with only his skull modestly swathed in a pillow case gave us a startled greeting. The sickening sweetness of iodoform about the room gave evidence that frogs had been put to sleep and their interiors exposed to the scientific mind. Beakers and tubes and gas burners seemed to indicate that chemistry is not unpopular to the Japarese schoolboy.
In the geography room we found interesting relief maps which the children made themselves. They very clever at putting their! artistic ideas down upon paper or beard. The maps were excellent, while in the drawing room which some of the smallest children occupy we found a recognizable Mount Fuji and a really brilliant caricature of the famous General Nogi, whom all the children seem to adore.
There is a museum too, full of jevorything from fox to fish. And lovely big play yard with basketball standards and a tennis court. Directly off the play yard is the garden.. In the further end is a miniature lake, like a fairy-tale pond, and a wee mountain. Some of the picturesque landscape of Japan has been transplanted by the clever] hands of little Japanese boys and girls who have a true sense of and Knack for beauty. A group of small boys were diligently planting bulbs and patting down the earth on top of them, There are theee other Japanese primary schools in Shanghai. In the-one on North Szechuen Road there are 898 students. In the East! Public School on Pingliang Road there are 363 pupils. There are 751 at the Central Public School at 6 Range Road and 294 at the Public School on Hart Road. It is the duty of every Japanese parent to and he usually at least si go when they are about six years fold and finish the primary grades when they are twelve. The Japanese have a thirst for education and most of them go on to "Middle" schools. Unfortunately the boys have to return to Japan in order to do this, although they can take two more years of higher primary work here, Efforts are being made to establish a "Biddle" school in Shanghai, but as the cost will be so if} great a as the funds will have to come from the Japanese Govern. ment and the parents of the school children, it will probably be some time before these efforts are realized.
The girls are more fortunate for there is a Girl's High School on Scott Road which has, at present, 284 students. There is also a Commercial School for boys on North Szechuen Road which has now 74 pupils. 'These boys are not entitled to go to Tung Wen University. Only' boys who have gone to the "Middle" schools in Japan are selected for the Tung Wen Colleges. Usually but! one or two are taken from each prefecture. These boys are selected by the government and sent to the universities at government expense. There are 400 students at the Shanghai Tung Wen College on Hungjag Road at present.
'The investment, in Shanghai, for the four grammer schools and the one girl's school is about $1,000,000. As the annual expenditure is $300,- 000, and the subsidy received from the' Japanese government is only $05,000, it is necessary for the Japanese resident in Shanghai to provide the rest of the necessary funds. This is done by many kinds of taxes, That the Japanese resident and parent is virtually interested in education and advancement may be! seen by the tremendous number of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.