Education.

The following anecdote aptly illustrates the saying, Who shall teach the teachers? It is a custom in Hayti that in all schools, public as well as private, there shall be once a year a solemn examination in the presence of a commission appointed by Government. M. Seguy-Villevalien kept the best private school or college that Port-au-Prince had ever seen, and on the appointed day for the public examination the official commission arrived, and having been duly installed in the seats of honour, teachers and pupils presented themselves, and the work commenced. All went well till the exercises in orthography were nearly over, when unfortunately M. Villevalien turned to the president of the commission, a negro of the deepest dye, but a high Government functionary, and said, “Would you like to try the boys yourself?” “Certainly;” and various words were given, which were written down on the black-board to the satisfaction of all. At last the president gave the word “Pantalon,” and a smart boy carefully chalked it up. “Stop!” cried the sable chief, “there is a mistake in that spelling.” The master, the teachers, and the boys carefully scanned the word, and could detect no mistake. The black had a smile of conscious superiority on his lips. At length the master said, “I see no mistake, president.” “You don’t! Do you not know that it is spelt with an e—‘pentalon’?” After a severe glance at his pupils to prevent an explosion of laughter, my friend, perfectly equal to the occasion, answered, “It used to be spelt so, president, but the Academy has lately changed the mode, and it is now spelt with an a.” The courtesy and gravity of M. Villevalien’s manner was such that the president of the commission was quite satisfied and pleased with himself. He wrote a favourable report on the condition of the school. Had the almost uncontrollable laughter of the boys burst forth, what would have been the report? And yet this man was a leading spirit in his country, and thought fit for the highest offices, though he was as stupid as he was ignorant.

I arrived at the college just too late for this scene, but in time to hear the cheerful laughter of the boys, who, after the departure of the commission, made the playground ring with their merry jokes.

President Geffrard, whose term of office extended from January 1859 to February 1867, did more than any other chief to encourage education, and yet, even in his time, not more than one in ten of the children of school-age attended the educational establishments.

Major Stuart, in his report on Hayti for the year 1876, gives some statistical tables which show the state of these establishments in the year 1875, and little has changed since, so that his figures will sufficiently serve the purpose required. There were—

4 lyceumswith543pupils.
6 superior girl schools”563”
5 secondary schools”350”
165 primary schools”11,784”
200 rural schools”5,939”
1 school of medicine”25”
1 school of music”46”
———
19,250”

To these may be added the pupils in the private schools and in those of the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Cluny.

It is very difficult to test the results attained at the official schools, but I think, judging from my own experience in Hayti, that they are small indeed. Some of the commissions appointed to examine the scholars report favourably, but, after the example of Monsieur Pentalon, I put but little faith in these judgments.

In the official report for the year 1878 there is much shortcoming confessed, and the feeling after reading it is, that the majority of the teachers are incompetent, as all negligently-paid service must be. Good teachers will not remain in employment with salaries often six months in arrear, and only those who can find nothing else to do will carry on the schools. Negligence is the result, and negligence in the masters acts on the scholars, and their attendance is irregular; and the means of teaching are often wanting, as the money voted for the purchase of books goes in this revolutionary country for arms and powder. Parents, particularly negro parents, rarely appreciate the value of the knowledge to be acquired in schools, and are apt to send their children late and take them away early, in order to aid in the family’s support.

The best school in the country is the Petit Séminaire, conducted by priests—Jesuits, it is said, under another name. The head of the college in my time, and, I believe, to the present day, was Père Simonet, a very superior man, quite capable of directing the institution aright; and I have been informed that the favourable results of their system of education have been very marked. In September 1883 this establishment was directed by fifteen priests of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, and contained as many as 300 pupils.

The Sisters of Cluny have also an establishment near Port-au-Prince, where the daughters of the chief families of the capital receive their education, and their institution is well spoken of. I attended one of their examinations and school exhibitions, when recitals and acting by the young girls were the amusements afforded us. Some of the pupils appeared to be remarkably bright, and they acquitted themselves of their tasks in a very pleasing manner. Since I left Hayti, these establishments for girls have greatly increased in importance. There are now as many as sixty sisters, and twenty others called “Filles de la Sagesse,” who have established schools throughout the country, which in 1883 were attended by about 3000 pupils.

The Christian Brothers have also many schools dispersed throughout the country, principally, however, in the larger towns, which are fairly well attended. They are reported to have had also in 1883 as many as 3000 boys under tuition.

It is generally thought that the teaching in all these schools is not such as to develop the intellect of the pupils. As might have been expected, too much time is given to trifling with religious subjects, as teaching the girls an infinity of hymns to Mary, and to the study of the lives of the saints. Such, at least, was the complaint made to me by the relatives of the girls. Nothing appears to be able to avert the evil influence of the immodest surroundings of these schools. A gentleman told me that, entering a room where his nieces were sitting sewing, he heard them singing a most indecent song in Creole, probably quite innocent of the real meaning, and they told him that they had learnt it from the native servants at the school; whilst the pupils at the Petit Séminaire have often suffered from the utter depravity of some of the lower portion of the population.

In one of the official reports on the principal lyceum, the Minister of Public Instruction remarks:—“As regards studies, discipline of pupils and teachers, the national lyceum has fallen into a shameful state. It is to the superior direction that this abasement of the lyceum is in part to be attributed. It so far forgets itself, as to give to professors and pupils scandalous spectacles, which attest the disregard of propriety and of the most ordinary reserve that a teacher ought to observe in presence of early age and youth.”

By this account it would appear that the pupils have often but a poor example to imitate. I should have set down to political feeling this strong censure had I not known the lyceum in my time to have fallen very low indeed in public estimation.

Poor, however, as the education is that is given in Hayti, it is nevertheless an advance; and if ever revolutions cease and peace be kept for a few years, the Government may yet turn its attention to founding educational establishments on a solid basis. Of this, however, there is very little hope.

There are several private schools in Hayti. The best, as I have previously observed, was kept by the late M. Seguy-Villevalien. He had a very high opinion of the capacity of Haytian boys to learn, and he turned out some excellent scholars. His school, however, deteriorated in late years from his inability to secure superior teachers, arising first from parents not paying their school-bills, and secondly from the Government omitting to settle their accounts with him for the bursars. I mention this to show what a people the Haytians are. During the civil war in 1868 and 1869, M. Villevalien spent all his capital in supporting some dozens of boarders, whose parents were among the insurgents, and by his energy saved them from being drafted into the army. Yet when the war was over, few, if any, paid him what was due, or did it in depreciated paper, which was almost equivalent to not paying at all.

Education in Hayti is too often sacrificed to political exigencies, and a master of a high school is not chosen for his capacity, but for his political leanings.

We all noticed what has often been remarked in Africa, that negro boys, up to the age of puberty, were often as sharp as their coloured fellow-pupils; and there can be no doubt that the coloured boys of Hayti have proved, at least in the case of one of their number, that they could hold their ground with the best of the whites. Young Fénélon Faubert obtained the “prix d’honneur au grand concours” at Paris in rhetoric, “discours latin,” and only missed it the next year by unpardonable carelessness.

Some of the Haytian lads have the most extraordinary memories. M. Villevalien mentioned one to me who came to his school rather over the usual age. My friend took up a book on rhetoric and asked him a few questions, which were answered in the words of the author without an error; curious as to the extent of his proficiency, the schoolmaster kept turning page after page, and found, to his surprise, that the boy knew nearly the whole volume by heart. He then began to converse with him, and found, that although he could repeat his lesson perfectly, he did not really understand the sense of what he was repeating.

Whilst I was at Port-au-Prince the following affecting incident occurred:—Many families who have accumulated a certain amount of wealth by retail trade are desirous of having their children well educated, and therefore send them to France. A Haïtienne of this description placed her daughter at the Convent of the Sacré Cœur in Paris. After seven years’ residence there, she passed a few months with a French family, and saw a little society in the capital. She then returned to Port-au-Prince, was received at the wharf by a rather coarse-looking fat woman, whom her affectionate heart told her was her mother, and accompanied her home. Here she found a shop near the market-place, where her mother sold salt pork and rum by retail; the place was full of black men and women of the labouring class, who were, as usual, using the coarsest language, and who pressed round to greet her as an old acquaintance. Traversing the shop, she found herself in a small parlour, and here she was destined to live. Her mother was doing a thriving trade, and was always in the shop, which was a receptacle of every strong-smelling food, whose odours penetrated to the parlour. There the young girl sat within earshot of the coarse language of the customers. What a contrast to the severe simplicity of the convent, the kindness of the nuns, the perfect propriety! and add to this the recollection of the society she had seen in Paris! She was but a tender plant, and could not stand this rude trial, and sickened and died within the first two months. At her funeral many speeches were made, and the doctor who had attended her, whilst declaring that she died of no special malady, counselled parents not to send their children to be educated in Europe, unless, on their return, they could offer them a suitable home. No wonder, under these circumstances, that every educated Haytian girl desires to marry a foreigner and quit the country.

The well-known lawyer, Deslandes, objected to Haytian children being sent to Paris for their education, as likely to introduce into the country French ideas and sympathies, and thus imperil their independence.

At the present time education must be completely neglected, as the whole attention of the country is devoted to mutual destruction.