THE LONDON SCHOOL BOARD VADE MECUM.
Reading edition
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.
