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BOARDING-SCHOOL versus DAY-SCHOOL

BELIEVE in the Communion of Saints," which the Catechism explains as signifying that all who belong to the true Church assist each other by their prayers and good works. Among the good works of others in which we hope to have a share is the education of the young. May God support and strengthen all those men and women who, in various parts of the world, by their persevering and self-denying labours are striving to secure for generation after generation the supreme blessing of a sound and religious education.

One of these training places for the young is St. Ignatius' College, Riverview, at Sydney, in Australia. From its pleasantly written and beautifully illustrated periodical, Our Alma Mater, we are going to take some pages in which the subject named at the head of this article is treated in a very original manner. It seems that the Third Division consists of very juvenile and small individuals, and that, therefore, the Riverview world was greatly startled to learn that these daring youngsters were getting up a Debating Society like their elders. A report is given in Our Alma Mater of July, 1907, of a debate on the relative advantages and disadvantages of education at home and education in a boarding-school. None of the youthful debaters (some of them so small of stature as hardly to be seen above the table) seems to have touched on one point which we heard alluded to in conversation after we had settled to "convey" those Australasian notes to our own pages, namely, that some home-taught people remain unduly shy through all their afterlife from not having passed through the ordeal of a boardingschool. Several of the points urged in the notes that we now proceed to extract would need to be modified and developed in various directions. Only a few of the speeches are here summarized.

The debate was conducted in regular parliamentary form, after three weeks' preparation, by a Government and an Opposition, each consisting of seven members. The Premier, Ewart Dinan, opened the deabte as follows:

"Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,-We are assembled here to-night to discuss a subject worthy of the most cultured minds, namely, whether the foundation of a man's life is better laid at a boarding-school or at a day-school. . . . A day-school boy may play what he likes. His parents will not say to him,

'Down to the football field; play up, or come to me afterwards for six.' No, gentlemen, such sternness is out of the question with them, and the boy idles away his free time, and looks forward only to the theatre or some other less healthy amusement. At a boarding-school a boy must join in many games and sports which forms his character, and facilitate his mental labours. Another important thing is a boy's diet. At home he is fed with the most abominable (!) rubbish possible, such as rich cakes, cream puffs, custards, and American sweets. In a boardingschool after a hard game of football he will sit down to a good plain meal, and relish it as much as if it were a king's banquet. The boarder has no nightly outings and trips. He must retire at a reasonable hour, and in the morning the peal of a pitiless bell prevents him lounging in bed till ten o'clock. A day boy may do almost what he chooses, and gratify every extravagant little wish, while the boarder learns obedience and self-control, and becomes an upright gentleman ready to make his way through the world in after life with courage and perseverance.

JULIAN BRYANT (M.P. for Mosman): "A day boy gets on better with his work, as his parents help him with any little thing he does not understand. At a boarding-school the master says something you do not grasp. You ask him again and again to explain. In the end you pretend to understand, because you are afraid he will get angry. Moreover, a day boy learns better manners, for at home visitors are frequent, and you get used to the way of entertaining them. Away at a boarding-school you seldom see visitors, and then when you make mistakes who is there to correct you? Nobody, gentlemen. You are sent down to the parlour, where there is no friend to correct your faults. Again at table, in a college you are among a lot of boys who will not take any notice of what you do, because they do the same things themselves. And so you sing out loud and stretch your arms across the table. As a boarder you become extravagant in your dress, and afterwards you may have to go begging dressed in good clothes and a bell-topper. There was once a boarding-school boy who thought of nothing but dress. In after life he had a different suit for every day in the week. Then he got into debt, and had to sell his house, and go to live in a hut in a valley. When starving there he tore his clothes into rags and smeared them with mud, and went out to ask for work and bread. That is the sort of education you get in a boarding-school."

SENAN RYAN (M.P. for Rockdale) :" Boys going to day-schools find it harder to keep good than boarders. On their way home they meet with bad companions, and are liable to be led astray. VOL. XXXV.-No. 413.

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On the other hand, the boys at a boarding-school have plenty of cricket and football, which make them forget everything evil. Even if a bad boy does get into a college the vigilant eye of the prefect soon ferrets him out, and he stops at home after the term.... Day boys have fond mothers, who give them what they like. Such fellows grow up wanting everything, and nobody likes them. Many of them, too, have a long distance to travel to their homes, and cannot set to work at their lessons till very late. They have not enough time for either play or study or sleep. The boarder has regular hours for meals and studies. He goes to bed and gets up at proper times, and has enough play to keep him in good health and spirits.'

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EVIE KEENAN (M.P. for Newcastle): "God gave the child to his parents, and they are responsible for his care. They understand their children better than outsiders, and take more interest in them. A boy, too, will confide in his father and mother, he will tell them freely all his little troubles, and be guided by their advice." The honourable member dewelt at some length on the terrors of homesickness, and the evil propensity of boarders to invest in shrewdy boots and double-rimmed hats. "Remember, also, that boys who have one day to take their place in the world should see more of men and things, and will have a better chance of preparing for the great battle if brought up outside the necessarily restricted life of a borading-school. Therefore, I am confident that the intelligent audience whom I have the honor of addressing will vote for day-schools."

CYPRIAN BRYANT (M.P. for Sydney): “In a day-school the grounds for cricket and football are ridiculously small, and so the day boy remains weak and skinny. It is otherwise at a boarding-school, where you have plenty of room for healthy exercise, and there you grow tall and strong. Moreover, in a boarding-school you have a good stage and fine plays, like 'Iolanthe,' whereas a day boy must be content with a small corner for a song and a few recitations. . . . It is true that a boarder feels lonely at first, but you soon get homesickness and many other things knocked out of you. When you go home for vacation your joy is all the greater, and you have so many grand things to tell your parents that you scarcely know where to begin."

STAN M'DERMOTT (M.P. for Orange). The right honourable but singularly small member for Orange introduced some interesting and original arguments into the discussion: "A boy attending a day-school learns all about the world and its wickedness, and so when he leaves school he knows how to start in life.... A boy attending a boarding-school gets a lot of unneces

sary books charged in the bill.... The Government will tell you that at a boarding-school you have more games than at a dayschool. I tell you that you have too much, and begin to hate them; so take my advice and cast your vote in favour of a dayschool."

ARTHUR KELLY (Leader of the Opposition): "As I glance along the Treasury bench my eye naturally falls on the Premier. This gentleman made a good speech, full of wisdom and flowers; but even he is not infallible. He says that day boys are spoiled by their parents, and have little or no games. Gentlemen, that is not true. Many day-schools have plenty of games, and though an only son may be sometimes over-petted by his parents that does not justify the Premier in saying that day boys in general are spoiled. I came next to the member for Rockdale, who spoke of the bad companions one meets at a day-school, and I ask him cannot there be bad boys also at a boarding-school. Of course, and if so, they can do more damage, for they are ever in your very midst. . . Nor is true to say that the eye of the prefect will always ferret him out, for that kind of boy is very cunning, and may escape the prefect's notice. . . . The member for North Sydney made a great many statements, which he failed to prove. Among other things, he said there are no plays like 'Iolanthe' at a day-school. Why, I have seen plenty of them myself, and moreover, I had the pleasure of meeting the honourable member himself at one during last holidays. . . . In conclusion, I shall ask you not to vote for the Government who would separate a boy from his parents and friends, but cast your vote instead in favour of those who champion the cause of that home life which is so dear to us all. 'Home, sweet home there is no place like home.'

EWART DINAN (Premier): "Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen,— I rise with pleasure to defend once more the cause of the boardingschools, and to begin with, I shall review some of the eccentric statements of our worthy opponents. In his opening speech the Opposition Leader took 'will power' as his motto. A boy's strength of will is sufficient, he says, to secure that his home work will be well done. Then, gentlemen, let us do away with all force. Let the prefect abandon his desk in his study hall and the will power of a hundred boys will keep them hard at work! Leave the playground unguarded, and what will happen? Will all the will power of the Opposition be sufficient to control the members for Maoriland and Newcastle? No! Give a boy an inch and he will take a yard. Let the masters bow down to their pupils, and we shall produce some beautiful scholars. There are some masters in this very house who try to get their

boys to work by kindness rather than by force-though the latter in the long run is the greater kindness. Is it for the easy master that the best work is done? Whose class comes out on top in the exams.? No, gentlemen, will power is not enough. Then the member for Mosman took George Stephenson as the example of a day boy, and he selected an anonymous shrewdy who lived in a hut as the example of a boarder. It would be easy for us to turn the tables. The boarding-schools have sent out even better men than Stephenson, while the day-schools have produced worse men than that bankrupt shrewdy who turned to honest work in the end of his days. The member for Newcastle had to descend to the nursery and make homesickness his argument. Why, the will power of the Opposition ought to make short work of homesickness. We may even admit the homesickness, and add with Tennyson that the joys of home are not fully realized till contrasted by sorrow. The same member told you that when a day boy is sick his mother will keep him at home. Yes, and the day-school loafers would not find it so easy to palm off the sick plea on the prefect of health at a boarding-school. You were all entranced by the eloquence of the member for Orange. He told you of the enormous price of books, and said that at a day-school your parents would stop such a waste of literature. Well, gentlemen, it seems to me that the master of a class is the best judge of the books which his pupil requires. Now the time has come to put the question to a vote. Do not be mesmerized by enormous calculations on the price of books or hypnotized by homesickness and other nursery rot. You are not girls, but boys. Vote, then, for the modern boarding-school, which is best suited to prepare you for the hard struggle of your after years."

The boarding-schools won by a majority of three.