SCHOOL IDEALS.

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14407, 15 July 1912, Page 3

SCHOOL IDEALS.

A MEDICAL -EXPKIif ON THE

QUESTION

A lecture on some medical'and-health aspects of education was delivered in the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall, Wellington, by Dr. Truby King on Saturday morning. Dr. King was introduced by Mr Mark Cohen, chairman of the Education Commission, and those present included some of the leading educationists of New Zealand.

The lecturer insisted (according to the "Post's" report) that physical fit-1 ness was of primary importance in education, and he denounced the habit of j young people wearing boots or shoes j that distort tho natural shape and do- j velopmerit of the foot, and consequently j the development of the whole body. In j the -case ol growing girls this matter j was of the utmost importance. He also insisted on the necessity of an alteration in. the system of education as it applied to girls, and quoted from a resolution passed by the Medical Association affirming the duty of tho State to frame an ideal system of education for girls, and the inversion of the present maxim that girls should be trained to maintain and not to prepare for potential maternity. 100 much attention was focussed on the development of the intellect, while the development of thc body was disregarded. What was the result in the case of giris. Girls were not developed so that they would reach the highest standard on the moral and emotional plane. He was not opposed to what was called the "higher education ot girls,'" so long as it was "higher. lo cut off love of offspring was cutting at the vow base of our civilisation. 'I he first requirement of higher education for girls was to fit them for taking their places as wives and mothers. In turn, he insisted on the importance of teaching children to value fresh air in tho development of the body. Most people considered physiology should be taught to higher classes, but their ideas of what the teaching, should, be were mainly wrong. Even where physiology was taught one generally found tliat pupils knew nothing of its very basis— the composition of food. Dr. King also stressed the extreme importance of teaching tho necessity for cleanliness. Surely if our higher education was right it would produce cleanliness in mind, body, and morals. Many of the school buildings, in the matter of ventilation, were nothing moro nor less than sealed boxes. If tiie Commission could do nothing more than bring about the teaching ot the necessity for hearthv living, it would accomplish a great deal. Did people remember that a person conkl fast - for forty days without food, but for four minutes only without air? In this way he demonstrated the part which air played in the life of the human being. Speaking of the training of young people, he said tliat children under nine years of ago should only go to school in the morning, and there should be an interval ot ten minutes for recreation after each hour's teachinc*. Infants he would not allow to go to ordinary school before they were seven years of age, certainly not before,six. Onen-air teaching should be followed, and the children should be given every facility for interesting exercises and recreation in the playground. In-the cities a great deal might bo done by the establishment of municipal swimming baths. These things ought to have "been done twenty years ago. Schools should be oroperly ventilated, and tho rooms used for infants should be cleared every forty minutes. /J'he i teacher of infant classes should have a love of children, and she should bo largely selected on account .of that. If the ordinary laws of hygiene taught iin infancy. we're followed in after, life, infinitely' more than half! tho '■ diseases that existed 'to-day would :disappeaj f V. Itofsvas- Sve sJiOiil|L arrive at some clear idea of yhatvchirdrOn most needed. Ho advocated the introduction into the schools of a simple printer oh ohysiology. The whole world wis suffering from'the disease called "modern education;" and the sooner it got over it tho better. There was too much rush in the" present system, and too many examinations. . Amongst other reforms which he suggested was the. regular weighing and measuring ot pupils • The inducement to cram in the shape of scholarships should be done away with-. (Hear, hear.) .There should he a greater extension.of technical training, especially ..in regard to rural matters.