From a copy of the St. Thomas Tidende of May 6, kindly sent us by Messrs. P. F. T. Titley & Co., containing a notice of the opening of a public college in St. Thomas on July 2, this year, we perceive that St. Thomas has at last taken a step in the right direction, to place its native inhabitants on a footing in education with the European portion of its population, who remain there only until they have accumulated sufficient means to live comfortably on in their own countries and so soon as they have accomplished this object they bid farewell to the island and all belonging to it without leaving a trace of the wealth they have accumulated, or the remotest sign of the benefit which it would be expected that this island should have derived from the prosperity of its commerce, leading to the accumulation of the fortunes nmussed by those who leave it in a position to live comfortably in Europe.
We feel that in justice to the native inhabitants of St. Thomas, the step which has now been taken by the local government of that colony to establish compulsory public education in the island ought to have been taken twenty five or thirty years ago, when, doubtless the revenues derived from the many years uninterrupted prosperity of its commerce would have warranted the outlays necessary for the maintenance of public schools, much more than it is likely that the present revenues from the island will be able to bear under the adverse circumstances of its commerce, occasioned by the constant depression of business and falling off of trade the last few years past.
It is, however, to be hoped that business cannot always remain in a state of depression in this island any more than in any other part of the world, and that things must soon take a change for the better, by which the commerce of the island will resume its wanted activity and prosperity, enabling the Government to carry out successfully the laudable object of educating the masses, and thus affording the native inhabitants of St. Thomas the advantages to be expected from compulsory public education, which must always give evidence of a judicious and useful expenditure of the public revenues.
The college to be established in St. Thomas, will be conducted on the most efficient principle calculated to carry out the object of teaching a good, sound, and useful education, under the tuition of three competent teachers and a highly capable and experienced school director engaged from the mother country.
The instruction will include the following branches, viz.: English, Danish, French, Spanish, history, geography, natural history, physics, arithmetic, algebra, geometry, commercial theory, caligraphy, drawing, and gymnastics.
The charges for tuition will be very moderate, and boys from the neighbouring islands will be admitted on the same charge as for resident pupils.
A boarding establishment will be attached to the college under the control of one or more of the head teaehers, for the facility of pupils from the surrounding islands of Porto Rico, St. Domingo, Haiti, &c., and it is expected that parents in these islands will avail themselves of the advantages now offered by St. Thomas for their children to receive a good and useful education in that island at much less expense and inconvenience than must be necessary on their lendirg them to Europe, and in future send all boys to St. Thomas to be educated.
- British Mail.
ST. THOMAS COLLEGE.
Messrs. J. F. T. Titley & Co., of St. Thomas W. I., have just informed us that a Government College is to be opened in that island in July next, under the supervision of three competent teachers and a school director. All the branches of a sound and useful education will be taught, and the charges for tuition are to be very moderate. A boarding establishment is to be attached to the college under the control of one or more of the head teachers, to encourage the entry of pupils train the neighbouring islands, and it is expected that in future children will be sent from Porto Rico, St. Domingo, Hayti, and other surrounding islands, to St. Thomas, instead of Europe, to be educated. The College in St. Thomas is a fine, missive structure of white bricks, three storeys high, built in the highest style of the architecture peculiar to the island, occupies a site on the side of a hill fronting the harbour, and commands a most imposing view. It has been the residence of some of St. Thomas's most famous citizens, and has also been used as a Masonie lodge, which inscription it yet bears in large black letters on the white bricks, slightly erased by a smattering of whitewash, which will no doubt be now covered with the new designition of "St. Thomas's Government College". Although it seems that the old Colonial Council Hall, a stone structure in St. Thomas, is considered the most suitable building in the island for a college, the preference was still given to the one referred to, doubtless from some former associations with it, or, perhaps, in consequence of its proximity to Government House, by which His Excellency might be afforded an opportunity of having always under his eyes the realization of one of his pet schemes - compulsory education - British Trade Journal.
(St. Croix Avis 27. juni 1877).
THE "AVIS" CHRISTIANSTED ST CROIX.
Saturday 30th June 1877
From an official announcement in the St. Thomas Tidende we learn that Mr. C. Dahl has been appointed First Teacher in the new college. Mr. Dahl is too well known in these Danish islands, and particularly in St. Croix, to need any introduction from us. But our paper no doubt finds its way occasionally to neighbouring colonies, and may perhaps fall into the hands of parents who have taken the college and its objects under consideration. For this reason we may be permitted to say that Mr. Dahl is a man of unusual ability, who possess, along with considerable experience ns a teacher, an extensive and varied knowledge in languages, the natural sciences, and mathematics. Although a native of Denmark, he has so complete a mastery of English, that it is not easy to detect, even in a very long conversation, that lie is speaking a language not, except by right ol conquest, his own. We cordially wish him entire success in the important work which he is now about to take in hand.
Mr. Sydney Speed, of Barbados, who has for some time been well known in St. Thomas as a successful teacher, is announced as Second Teacher in the new college.
The college opens on Monday next.
(St. Croix Avis 30. juni 1877).
Skoleundervisningen havde indtil 1876 været varetaget af private, religiøse skoler. En reform fra 1876 skulle indføre almueskoler med obligatorisk undervisning. At religion ikke blev nævnt som et fag, kan skyldes det omtålelige i dette fag da der fandtes mange forskellige religiøse retninger på St. Thomas. Heller ikke historie er med. I april 1878 donerede A. H. Riise 6000 vestindiske daler til oprettelse og vedligeholdelse af kommunale skoler på St. Thomas. De blev brugt på at åbne skolerne 1. juni 1878.
Den nævnte skole - en realskole - var et led i denne reform. Det lå i kortene at kun hvide drenge kunne blive optaget. En realskole på St. Croix var ikke på tale. St. Thomas College var for elever indtil 16. år. Realskolen vist sig ret hurtigt at være en fiasko. Det var håbet at realskolen kunne få 150 elever, men nåede højst 30, og gik ret hurtigt nedefter.
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