Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 67.djvu/355

Rh institution of learning. All that they want their sons to obtain is a knowledge 'sufficient for the need' By this expression they mean that as soon as their sons are able to take positions as clerks, their education is 'finished.' Their highest ambition is to have their sons become chief clerks or compradores in commercial houses, thus insuring comfortable livelihoods.

Even the students who aim higher than 'business English' are anxious to find a short cut to learning and to obtain a general knowledge of science, philosophy or law in a very brief period. They are not willing to spend weeks, if need be, on a single point. They have no desire for original investigation; no craving for research work; no yearning to become wise above 'that which is written.' They are not willing to sacrifice time, pleasure and money and make everything subservient to the one aim of getting a thorough education.

Filial piety, inculcated into them by generations of usage and enforced upon them by their parents, is another great drawback. For instance, if a paternal relative is indisposed, the student must leave school and travel to his village to pay his respects to the sick one, thereby losing from a week to ten days' schooling. In the event of the marriage of a relative or of any other important festivity, the parents desire that the student be excused for another ten days or so, thus breaking into the continuity of his studies.

The poor physical condition of most of the students is another hindrance to their progress, and necessitates many days of absence from classes. Having been accustomed under the old Chinese system of education to commit to memory what was written, many of the students, who enter an institution of foreign learning where they are required not to memorize but to reason out the cause and effect and to give explanation for all that they do, find the work very hard upon them physically. Their ability to think and reason has been dwarfed by their previous training, and the transitional period of their mental readjustment is a great strain upon their weakened constitutions. One might ask, 'How have their constitutions become weakened?' By the use of tobacco and by the conditions under which they have studied. In the Chinese schools they have sat at their books from dawn until dark and read far into the night, seven days a week almost the whole year round, without physical exercise or proper ventilation. Consequently, the physical condition of many of the most diligent students is most deplorable.

Western education in China, like many pioneer undertakings elsewhere, has not had a proper start. Until recent years, very few real educators have come to China to establish schools. Formerly, most of the schools in which western learning was taught were conducted by zealous missionaries; unfortunately, most of the missionaries were not