AGAIN "THE THREE R.'S."

Auckland Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 24 November 1915, Page 10

AGAIN "THE THREE R.'S."

DECLINING AMONG THE STARS. EVIDENCE OF VETERAN WITNESSES. A common complaint (says the Wellington "Posf') is that the average sixth standard boy of to-day, when he begins his career In the working world, is not so well grounded and founded on "The Three R's" as his predecessor was twenty years and more ago. The argument is that the modern boy's time and attention are stretched between the sands of the sea and the cycles of the stars; he has a superficial smattering of various "ologies." by which he gets muddled notions of "science." His mind is projected into the universe by the little primers, and is there lost. Here ends the mission of the primer and the teacher (who has to conform more or less to the syllabus); the boy has to find guidance somehow in the vastness.

From time to time the Minister of ; Education (the Hon. J". A. Hanan) has conversed on this subject with veteran bankers, merchants, captains of industry, and departmental heads. Knowing that long processions of boys have passed through their offices, the Minister has asked them how the schoolboy of to-day compares with one of the old times. The reply is always the same. The business and professional men say that the modern boy is inferior in the important things—reading, writing, spelling, composition, and arithmetic. Always, too, the same explanation is given. It is that the boys of other days did not have to spread their energy over many minor matters. They were kept at a few foundation subjects (on which all the "ologies" are based), they had to learn truly-and well.

"Free, secular, and compulsory" is the usual description of New Zealand's education system. A fourth word has been added —it is "sexless." Generally speaking, within the meaning of the Act, the boy is a. girl and the girl is a boy for the purposes of education. Tne older statutes have ignored the Official Year Book, the vulgar volume which has the audacity to prove (on facte) that the average girl marries the avernge boy, and that the average adult woman has the care of a -household. Mr. Hanan hns resolved to do all in his power to bring the education system into reasonable conformity with Year Book facts.