During these years we took many boys into the school who came to nothing. Some were too stupid, and we had to send them away after they had learned to read and knew something of the Bible. Others were bad boys, and we had to dismiss them; and some got tired and ran away, or were taken away by their parents because they wanted them at home to work. We sifted out some good ones, who were bright and promised to make good men.
The pupils they retained at the end of the first ten years were culled out of more than twice their number. Of the routine of the school he wrote:
The boys go to school at six o’clock in the morning, and study till eight. Then all meet in the large schoolroom for prayers. After this there is a recess of an hour for breakfast. At half-past nine they go to school again, and remain till half-past twelve. In the afternoon they have another session of four hours. During the shortest days of winter they have an evening session instead of a morning session. These are the ordinary hours of study in the native schools. At first we thought so many hours in school too much for either health or profit, but after trying our plan for several years, we were convinced that for Chinese children and Chinese methods of study the native plan is best. The great business in Chinese schools is committing the classics, which they do by chanting them over rhythmically at the top of their voices, each one singing a tune of his own, and apparently trying to “hollow” louder than the others. The din they make would be distracting to one of us, but the Chinese teacher seems to enjoy it. The exercise it gives the lungs compensates, perhaps, for the want of more play hours. When Mrs. Mateer or I go into the school to hear classes, we, of course, make them stop their uproarious studying, and study to themselves. About half the day our boys devote to Christian and to scientific books. They learn a catechism of Christian doctrine, “The Peep of Day,” Old Testament history, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” “Evidences of Christianity,” and memorize portions of Scripture. They study also geography, ancient history, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, natural philosophy, and chemistry. They are trained in singing, writing essays, and debating. The native books which they study are composed mostly of the maxims and wise sayings of Confucius and Mencius, together with a large number of poems. These books teach people to be honest and upright. They teach children to obey their parents and elder brothers. They also contain a great deal about the duties of the people to their rulers, and of the rulers to the people. They praise all good and virtuous men, and exhort all to lead virtuous lives; but they offer no motives higher than the praise of men. They teach nothing about God or future life. They are all written in what is called the classical style, which is to a Chinese boy what Latin is to an American boy. These books the boys commit to memory, and recite to their teacher, but without understanding them. When a book has been memorized and a boy can repeat it from beginning to end, the teacher commences to explain it to him. He has neither grammar nor dictionary to help him, but must learn all from the teacher’s lips. When a young man can repeat all these books and give the explanation, and can write an essay in the same style, the Chinese consider him a scholar, and when he can do this, and in addition has mastered all the other branches of study mentioned above, we consider his education finished, and he graduates from our school. A boy must have a good mind, and be very diligent if he gets through in twelve years.
The clothes of the boys, of course, were entirely Chinese as to material and style. Their food was of like character. The dormitories were low rooms with earthen floors and the bedsteads were of dry mud. The letter continues:
Teaching the boys their regular lessons is but a small part of the work to be done in such a school as ours. Ways and means have to be provided to have their food bought and properly cooked. The cook must be prevented from stealing it, and the boys from wasting it. Their clothes have to be made in proper season, and mended and washed, and the boys watched that they do not destroy them. Then each boy’s grievances have to be heard and his quarrels examined into and settled. Bad boys have to be exhorted or reproved, and perhaps punished and every possible means used, and that constantly, to make the boys obedient and truthful and honest. We also strive to train them to habits of industry, perseverance, and self-reliance, without which their education will do them no good. Thus you see that to train up these boys so that they shall become good and useful men requires a great deal of labor, patience, and faith, and prayer.
| Large College Building | End of Chapel (formerly Kwan Yin Temple) | College Bell Small Schoolroom |
These are homely details, but we cannot overlook them, and understand the life of the Mateers in its connection with this work.
Discipline in any school composed of so many boys and of such varied age could not be an easy task; in this Chinese school it was peculiarly perplexing. There were some unusual incidents. Falsehood, stealing, quarreling, gluttony, and even sodomy were offenses that had to be dealt with according to the circumstances attending each case. One instance of discipline was so distinctively Chinese that the description of it by Mateer in his Journal deserves a place here. Under date of April 9, 1869, he wrote: