Question. What are the functions of the
School Board?
Answer. To protest against the conduct
of the Educational Department.
Q. In this protest has the Board the sympathy
of the public?
A. Unquestionably; because the conduct
of the Educational Department is calculated
to send up rates.
Q. But does not the Department look
after the sanitary side of the matter?
A. Perhaps so; but sanitation is too
expensive a matter to be treated without the
maturest consideration.
Q. Are the recommendations of the Department
unreasonable?
A. Very. The Board is required to make
the most costly alterations in buildings that
have already eaten up a large sum of money,
and should not consume a penny more.
Q. But are not the suggested improvements
ones that would be accepted nowadays
in any new design?
A. Certainly, but then their adoption
would be the cause of little or no expense.
Q. Then should science stop still until
the rates become abated?
A. That would be the practical course for
science to pursue.
Q. But leaving grievances out of the question,
what can be said about education?
A. That is a matter of secondary importance,
when compared with the latest sanitary
developments.
Q. But how about the children? Have they
been educated? What can be said about them?
A. Nothing. So far as the School Board
is concerned, the question of education in
general is absolutely of secondary importance.
Q. Then the career of a child need not be
considered nor watched?
A. Of course not. The sole means suggested
for teaching a child is to squabble with
the Government and to more or less ignore
the requirements of the schoolmaster.
