STARTING SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 103, 3 May 1934, Page 10

STARTING SCHOOL

(To the Editor.)

Sir.. —There, is one resolution submitted to meetings of householders which I hope the Minister of Education will ignore and I can support my contention from my personal ' experience of twelve years' teaching, in all classes and grades, of primary schools, as a medical man, and as a parent. The resolution I object to deals with a recommendation that kindergarten rooms bb attached to pur schools for children between the ages of three years and six years. I adriiit that the teachers, have suffered in loss of salary through the six-year rule, but' this may probably be only temporary, as these children have to pass through the schools, and if the teachers .„ do not push them through the infant classes as I am suspecting that they are doing,, the children: will still be the same length of time at school. From experience as a teacher I found that the child who started school at six years was a stronger child and consequently stood up to the fatigue of learning far better than those who started'school at five years. Education means training the five senses, and. we must give up the idea that it is possible or necessary to t.eaeh the child' everything that is known. In the growing child the brain develops and it is impossible to put knowledge into the brain before it is ready to receive it. The fetish of the school age being five years arose from the fnet that medical men and educationists agreed that the age of five years was a suitable age to alloiv ehildven to congregate in' masses and not be affected by infections and epidemics and this is the reason why I object to kindergarten schools and any attempts 'to gather children under the age of six years for any purpose whatsoever. It is all idle speculation as to the effect of allowing children under six to wander about. Whatever their mind may pick up. at this period they will promptly forget when they come; under discipline at school after the age of six years. Wo have too much theory and not enough common sense woven around our educational system today. Many of our fads in education are due mainly to the fact.that some teachers, in order to catch tho eye of their superiors, develop a scheme which leads them" quickly to the top of the educational tree.-—-I am, etc., L. G. AUSTIN.' [This letter has been abridged!]