IS OUR SCHOOL-TRAINING PRACTICAL?

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10757, 10 September 1900, Page 2

IS OUR SCHOOL-TRAINING PRACTICAL?

AN ANSWER IN THE NEGATIVE,

WHERE THE SYSTEM FAILS.

OtJB SPECIAL BBPORTEB.}

Headmasters at both primary and secondary schools admit defects in our education system. But while commercial men, with startling unanimity, agree that boys fresh from school and college are practically useless when first transplanted to the counting house, some of the schoolmasters interviewed by this journal denied that it was due entirely to the system, and urged that lads were rushed into offices, ignorant and inexperienced, by Earents who snatched them from school long efore they were old enough, In order to obtain the other Sidfe of the question a representative, of "The Press" has interviewed Mr G-. O. Stead,, who, as a practical business man, has something to say in reply. "Yes, I think our system of education is far from perfect," aaid Mr Stead, in ■answer to. a direct question. "It appears to mc that both the subjects ■taught, and the method of teaching, could • be improved. The remark applies more particularly to our secondary schools, although the college is far from perfect. No doubt Canterbury College has turned out several brilliant students, but I take it that this is due more to their.natural capacity than to the excellence of the system which obtains. It seems to mc that we follow too i slavishly the conservative routine of Oxford and Cambridge. Wβ are apt to forget that 99 per cent, of the students in New Zealand require an education that will fit them to earn their own living, and that what they I need to equip them to fight the battle of life ought to be practical rather than dilettante. We are told that the proportion of students who take honours at Canterbury College will compare more than favourably with most other colleges. This may be true, but looked at practically, how many of the students are capable of earning their own living directly they leave? Their natural capacity, rather than the system of tuition, has been responsible for the majority of really brilliant graduates. "But, perhaps there is more room for alteration in the systems adopted in the secondary schools. Personally I think it would be better if more attention were paid to the live languages, such as English and French, than to dead languages, such as Latin or Greek. Unfortunately, in the majority of secondary schools, if not in all, Latin is made a most important subject, and the scholar, to a great extent, is measured by his success in Latin. If proof of this is necessary, I might point out that a boy wishing to matriculate takes up six subjects, provided that Latin is one of them,, but if be desires to omit Latin he is compelled to take up two other subjects in place of it. "Then, as to the manner of teaching. There can ba little doubt that a lad can obtain a better knowledge of French orally from a tutor in a week than he would gain in a month by writing out grammatical exercises. Take Euclid also. What practical use it it to anyone? And yet almost every secondary school in New* Zealand makes it a _strong point, largely to the exclusion of other branches of mathematics.

For if a boy's time was not wasted in Euclid he could devote more of it to practical arithmetic and algebra. The present method of teaching history is another point. To errun a boy's head with long chapters on tie Wars of the Roses, and the date of the death of, say, a Doge of Venice, is ns sad a waste of time as to teach a mechanic Hebrew,' Next, as to grammar. What can bs inora cumbersome than the manner in which tills subject is taught at most schools. It jj pitiable to see lads poring over a modem English grammar when one realises the in. finitesimal benefit to be obtained therefrom, The chief object of grammar is to enable a boy to speak and write correctly. Surblv this can be done without compelling t'n'e wretched lad to learn pages and pages <if old English roots, to parse or analyse iii. tricate sentences, and to cram up the rules of syntax.

"Most schoolmasters lack initiative. Titer don't move with the times, but teach on tie same lines as their fathers taught before them, I notice, by the way, that some, of the schoolmasters you interviewed, plead&j that it was too much to expect a lad to write a business letter.at thirteen or fourteen years of age. Jtfo one expects him to do so. I am associated with some half-dozen-mercantile undertakings in Canterbury, and I see a great deal of th'e capacity, orj more correctly speaking, the want of capacity, of many of the lads who enter these offices direct from school. It is very seldonf that boys tinder sixteen years of asre are engaged, and it is astonishing to find how little eduea* tion of a practical nature they have.ncquired at school. For instance, not very long ago a lad rather over eighteen years of age, who had just left a leading ChVistchureh secondary school of sufficiently long standin? to have its traditions, applied for the position of a junior clerk. The manager, wishing to test the boy's writing and arithmetic, linmied him some sheets of paper and a pen with a request that he would find out what'the.premium of insurance would be on £3500 at. £3 5s per cenfc. The boy struggled for about an hour, and filled two "sheets of paper -sritlv sprawling, untidy figures, and finally Reduced an answer something like doubV the. capital sum involved. A short time afterwards another lad of about the same Rg% and from a similar institution, applied, a,r V was given a sum of the same descriptkcf After working at it for about a quarter of &i. hour ha frankly admitted that he had not the faintest idea what it meant. As for writing a letter in the most ordinary English., the bulk of the boys have very little idea of penning an original composition, Yet schoolmasters are under the fond impression that they turn their boys out with a practical education. "The days when'all decent appointment , ! could only.be obtained by favour or influence are now happily past, and, practically speaking, every lad has an equal chance, or. put in another way, boys nowadays hay a to submit to what is in effect -a competitive examination. That is to say, the best educated and most intelligent boy has the greatest prospect of success. ' Hence the necessity in toe colonies for educating.bojs in a practical manner." . ,