BOYS' HIGH SCHOOL.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 11152, 19 December 1901, Page 3

BOYS' HIGH SCHOOL.

A SCHEME 0? REORGANISATIONMODERN AN* CLASSICAL SIDES. At tire prizs |isiribut:tm of- the Boys High School y«*»rday evening, tbe hea ~ DMUfttr of the selod. Mr C. E. B«eoBrown, made a most important speech iner upon the reorganisation of tb- »£ ° work, with-the oßject of providing a schemt. of education in accordance with, the late-. developments at Home's and abroad. It was now. -he said, three years -since he had the honour of addressing them, iuhealth having caused his absence on two previous prize da}-s. Ev*r since his return from England he had had thoughts Simmering in his mind of certain changes, as he hoped improvements, which mighty »c effected in., the School. He-supposed these ideas had come in some measure from tne ■fact .that his long absence had enabled him to look at the school-in a more detached manner. As he had much to say, he should at onca plunge into the matters of which he had to tell them. There .was an article by "Mr Joynt in "The.Press" that morning, and also "a leading article, with both-of which he was in sympathy—with the leading article entirely ' sof but Mr Joynt s article required modification. They niust always try to lit their ideak and theories to the particular matter with which they had to deal. An education which would suit-a boy destined to a complete school course, and afterwards to proceed to the University, was very different from what would suit a boy who was only to stay two years, and would afterwards go into business. He was still a firm, believer that a humanistic course —by which he . meant a course embracing tirst religion, then the language, literature, and history of Greece and Home, of England, and of at least one modern country—judiciously blended with mathematics and science and drawing, vraS the best ideal education for a boy if he could stay long enough. But here came their difficulty. A Urerman school was planned for a, boy coming at. nine years of age, and leaving at" eighteen. If he did not come at nine, he ediild hardly enter at all. Here boys of various ages and stages of attoin- ■ mint had to be taken. In Germany,- again, I there were in" a German town generally I three different Muds of secondary schools. First, the gymnasium for trays intended for the learned professions—here Latin and Greek predominated; second/ the real gymnasium, in which Greek was dropped and English took its place, intended for boys who were "to take responsible positions in mercantile or manufacturing pursuits; third, the real school,' where classics were dropped, and great emphasis was placed on modern languages and modern subjects; i and this school was meant for boys who would go into ordinary trades, and was a ', shorter course than the others, though even ■ in this the curriculum was for six years. The High School here, and most English schools, had to combine all three classes of schools j they had no differentiation of school, according £o a boy's careen Some of'these pupils would stay five or six and go to the.University or a profession; some would be engineers; some, and' a> great number, unfortunately, left very early for business. Education was not valued in England and the English colonies as it was in America and on the Continent. Here and at Home they believed in sending raw youths, quite uneducated, with faculties untrained, straight into an office; in fact, in England alone it was a maxini with business men ■ that boys should begin their, life's work at 1 about fifteen. Let him urge on parents who could afford it to give their boys a freer I chance; their school days would never come back. ' Many an old boy had regretted to him thatj partly at his own instance, he left school too early. But w>vr, continued Mr Bevan-Brown, ' for the changes to make'fch'e best of their English system, which, he might admit, i had <bhe great advantages of all English systems of greater freedom and elasticity; but this very freedom produced difficulties. He proposed in future to adopt partially the form system, and instead, of reclassif3*ing boys for each" subject, to place them ■ into , two sets, one set for languages and. history—-what be" had ca'.led the humanities • 1 —and another eet for mathematics, science, and art. This -would necessitate remaining of the forms, and parents next year must not be surprised at different names; ' a lower number might mean a promotion. 1 The advantaiges of *Ms system —which, waa almost universal in the .beet schools—would, be that boys' would be under the care of one form master-; secondly, that they should be able to specialise their masters in, a, way impossible before, when each, ■master taught all subjects, • and one subject had to be taught throughout the school ait one time. It would also make their classification for, science and drawing much snore even and compact. There wouldl be an Tipper and. a lower school. The science work of the. lower school would be what was called nature study, not differentiated, into a special science, but dealing in an' interesfcm/j way with, the common phenomena,, and natural 'history. In the upper school there would! be serious work in chemistry and physics, both practical and theoretical.- As he iaad already said*, the drawing would be much better graded, and made more general; and.there would be a great number of workshW) classes. He.wished next year to extend the work oi the gymnasium. (Applause.) Mr Jackson ihadl for many years voluntarily undertaken it, and for this he deserved their best thanks; but he' could not ask, him to more numerous classes of next year, and ihe hoped on outside special •piaster would be engaged. He thbught it most; desirable that every boy should have proper physical training, and at this he should aim, and - ihe should - never be satisfied till ,they got a large and better equipped gymnasium, and, ihe might add, a larger playground. Then, to ttte boys who only stayed at school for a year, eighteen montihs, or two years, !be proposed to give a substitute for Latin. He deplored the fact that parents should tsend boys for so short a time, but as several did, he was convinced that for that number something more profitable, something more within their grasp, was desirable, instead of a smattering of Latin. Boys should not, as Mr Hogben said, begin a Janguage unless they could carry ifc on to what he called the paying point— bo the ■ point when, for instance, uiey could read I an author. It was no use—to adapt to Latin a> remark made, he thought, by Professor Jebb about Greek—to start for Rome and turn back after going-a. fourth of the distance; better make their objec- ; tive one they could attain. This remark did 'not apply to a modern language, because with good teaching, French at any rate could be brought to the paying point ha two years or even less. He proposed that all those boys who left after, say, two years, for business, should learn French, and should share in the general instruction' in English history, mathematics, science, and drawing, but in the place of the six hours given in the rest of the school to Latin, they should, as they had this year to a certain extent,: hjive a thorough course in commercial subjects, such a course as was kid down in tie recent Manual and Technical Instruction Act, including bookkeeping, precis-writing, and correspondeaice, commercial arithmetic, and geography, and the elements of economics. Shorthand and typewriting, -which, were technical subjects, and of little educational value, would be. taught outside school hours in special classes, and for a -, special fee. Intending farmers might have the elements of bota-ny and agriculture,; and intending engineers extra drawing and workshop. If anybody, misunderstanding him, imagined that ne would turn the school into a commercial academy, they would be mistaken, for this would by no means follow. As a humanistic element, to compensate for the loss of the dead'language, he intended that all those boys should have Greet stories, or translations of the classics, one hour a •week. The above alternative to Latin should be taken by boys whose career would be under two years, and by those who after trial showed no literary aptitude. One modern language was enough for those who had no literary bent, and they would ' be more stimulated by something appealing , more to hand and" eye. The grand ainv of all education, said the headmaster, was the formation of character. (Applause.) But they must have regard to a boy's circmnstances ! and bis' future ef-

ficiency, and they must not, as some pedants would do, condemn a thing merely bacause I it was useful, and there were many ways of training character; and it was because among other thiings of the demoralising effect on a. boy's own mind when _ne was compelled to start a subject in which he knew he could not persevere, and for which lie had no aptitude, that they were making the change indicated. It was perfectly time that the best preparation for business, as well as profession, would be such, an all round education as he had outlined at the commencement. But the boys he was considering were not allowed by their parents to take advantage of it, or else showed by their aptitudes that for them different treatment was required. There was another choice offered in place of Latin—viz., German. Ho should like to see more German in the schools and the. universities. At Home, on the modern aide, German be taken for Latin, but here ho was afraid that parents would not stand two modern languages. Moreover, he should not allow a boy to begin the "difficult of German until he> hadl reached the Upper School. They would offer German next year not only as an alternative to Latin, but, like Greek, as an alternative to science, for a few boys in the Upper School only. He was pleased to say that this year they had three boys studying Greek—the boys who would go to the so tiat this noble language, though deficient in many schools, was not yet dead with them. Their school, as compared with German schools, had to iTjr to, fulfil' the objects' of at least three of these schools; on the whole, however, in "the upper classes it would approximate to their Keal-Gymnosium, though with them there was the possibility of Greek. They hoped to quicken the study of French next year by the appointment of a Frenchman," who would give oral teaching in the language to each of the classes. He believed that modern languages should not bo taught, as 'Latin, bjr grammar and exercise book, but by the voice, by -the , oral or natural method as much, as circumstances would allow, and he thoroughly endorsed what • Professor Blunt said in his report. In the Auckland and Wellington Colleges, and he believed tie D-unedin Hiijh .School, and in" many of the.schools in tie Saturday was ' r fl? whole "holi--dir,-->-*~p-.> ,; of two half-holidays. For years we had debated this question, and he I had been approached by parents otrfche sub- ' ject. They had a large number of boys coming from, tixo country districts and suburbs, and for their sake and for. other •reasons they had decided on this change. ' They proposed to have a short dinner hour on Wednesday, and to begin school at 9.15 a.m. in the morning, so as to have flftei- - noon school over by 3 p.m. Tims sports would not be interfered with, but lie believed, especially among the - lower teams, would be advantaged , by 'the change; on Saturday afternoons they now oflfcn found ib difficult to get a .ground) to play on. 1 Now they would; ibe able to play on Saturday mornings; while the senior boys.would be able to have their shooting or gymnasium then; also, boys who could not on other days attend the -workshop ; might $io so on that morning. He had been obliged to j?o into many details, but in addition to- what he had outlined above there would' be a revision of their methods of teaching;, making it, he .hoped, more incisive and fruitful; • and they should have also in each Form below the Sixth a correlated scheme for literature, history, and , geography, so that all three might be- connected in subject matter and lean on each other. And they honed to emphasise more than before that important Subject—history, not merely British, but European- liistory. ■ He might say that all- these- various changes tact been talked over with his staff, and had their hearty assent. (Loud applause.) '