There Are Various Opinions As To The Amount Of Learning Which
Constitutes Education, And At Some Of The Government Schools The
Native Children Are Crammed With Useless Nonsense, Which, By
Raising Them Above Their Natural Position, Totally Unfits Them
For Their Proper Sphere.
This is what the government calls
education; and the same time and expense thus employed in
teaching a few would educate treble the number in plain English.
It is too absurd to hear the arguments in favor of mathematics,
geography, etc., etc., for the native children, when a large
proportion of our own population in Great Britain can neither
read nor write.
The great desideratum in native education is a thorough knowledge
of the English tongue, which naturally is the first stone for any
superstructure of more extended learning. This brings them
within the reach of the missionary, not only in conversation, but
it enables them to benefit by books, which are otherwise useless.
It lessens the distance between the white man and the black, and
an acquaintance with the English language engenders a taste for
English habits. The first dawn of civilization commences with a
knowledge of our language. The native immediately adopts some
English customs and ideas, and drops a corresponding number of
his own. In fact, he is a soil fit to work up on, instead of
being a barren rock as hitherto, firm in his own ignorance and
prejudices.
In the education of the rising native generation lies the hope of
ultimate conversion.
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