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The Pamphlet Collection of Sir Robert Stout: Personal Volume

IV. Evening Classes

IV. Evening Classes.

Number of centres in New Zealand = 151.

Number of free pupils in 1916 = 4,060.

Open free to holders of Certificates of Proficiency, holders of Certificates of Competency in S6 page 314 with the special endorsement of merit in handwork and elementary science, and to those who hold no certificate at all if they wish to attend industrial classes, are over fourteen years of age, and have left a public school for not more than six months.

At the three classes of schools that have been briefly described pupils must attend during the day, and they are not helpful to those who are really compelled to engage in work in the daytime. For such boys and girls the doors of knowledge are not closed, however. Indeed, they are open very wide, and even if you have to work during the day you still have the opportunity to improve your prospects in life by study.

As you see, these evening classes are widely distributed, and are attended by a large number of students. Can you not become one of them? Ask your teacher about it and follow his advice.

And here let us say that you should not feel discouraged because you have not won a Scholarship, gained a Certificate of Proficiency or Competency, or taken a high place in your class. No certificate is needed to gain you free admission to these evening classes. All that is required is a desire to get on, and pluck and perseverance to carry it through. Nor does it follow that you have not ability because you did not take a high place among your class-mates at school. The bodies of some children grow quickly and those of others slowly. So it is with the mind. Indeed, many children who have been looked upon as dull at school have afterwards become prominent and even famous in the world.

You have now glanced briefly at the different-institutions that the State has provided for the education of its boys and girls after they leave the primary schools. You have seen that thousands of pupils are page 315 now attending them. Are you going to neglect your opportunities by not attending at all, by attending for only a short time, by being lazy and indolent while you do attend, or by making the wrong choice where a selection is possible? If you do you will be sorry for it only once—all your life.

Whether your talents be great or small you should use them honestly and well. It has been truly said that "If you have great talents industry will improve them; if you have only moderate talents industry will supply the deficiency." One often hears the remark, "What a lucky man Mr. So-and-so is!" But the so-called "lucky" man may have striven hard and made the most of his talents and opportunities, while the "unlucky" man may have neglected his and allowed pleasure, sport, or a thousand-and-one things—not bad in their proper places—to have first claim upon his time. See that you are not going to be one of those who put down their lack of success to "bad luck," instead of to the proper cause—lack of pluck, industry, and perseverance.

In New Zealand it is not lawful for a boy or a girl to leave school until the age of fourteen years is reached, unless he is thirteen years of age and has gained the Certificate of Proficiency. This is the law, and what is enforced by the law. But this should not satisfy a boy or a girl with any self-respect. The law enforces only the least that is required of one, while the State, which makes the law, provides opportunities for more. Make your school life, therefore, as long as you can. Some shrewd boy or girl may ask, "Does it pay to continue my education? "Well, figures showing the extent to which it pays have not been compiled for New Zealand, but let us give you some figures that have been compiled elsewhere. Two groups of citizens were taken, (a) those who left school at fourteen, and (b) those who left school at page 316 eighteen. We cannot give you all the figures here, but it was found that those who left school at fourteen and began to earn money at once received, by the time they reached twenty-five years of age, only two-thirds of what was received by others who remained at school till they were eighteen and for four years earned nothing. Moreover, at twenty-five years of age those who stayed at school for the longer period were, on the average, earning nearly two and a half times as much in yearly salary as those who left school early. Is that an answer to your shrewd question?

Yet the time comes when all boys and girls have to leave school, and the following words of advice may prove useful whether that time is now or later:—
(1.)Consider what you are best, fitted for; ask your parents and your teacher what they think.
(2.)Think of the future. Do not engage in "blind alley" occupations. Many kinds of work, such as is done by messengers, van-boys, errand-boys, and so on, end when a boy reaches seventeen or eighteen, and it is then difficult for him to begin again. Many grown men who earned high wages when they were young have been thrown out of employment because their work led to nothing.
(3.)Learn your work thoroughly. With clever hands and a trained brain you have a double chance in life.
(4.)If you find your work does not suit you, stick to it till you get something better, but do not keep wandering from one kind of work to another learning no kind well and thoroughly. Do not change without good reason.
(5.)If you prefer a trade choose one in which you are likely to find employment anywhere and at any time.
(6.)If you live in one of the larger towns and do not know where employment is to be obtained, seek information and advice from the Officer in Charge of the Juvenile Branch of the Labour page 317 Bureau, who will soon find you something to do.
(7.)Be brave and cheerful in whatever work you choose. The struggle to fit yourself will at first be hard, but it will become easier if you persevere. "Practice makes perfect."

What has been just said applies to girls equally with boys, but to the former it may be specially pointed out that they should fit themselves for the future home life that is their proper sphere. A girl or woman who has so trained herself can, if the necessity arises, command good wages in any part of the country.

The most important thing for all to remember is that you should so train yourselves that in time to come you will be just the man or woman you ought to be, and it must never be forgotten that "The hour of your choice is the crisis in your history."