EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 273, 11 August 1908, Page 7

EDUCATION IN NEW ZEALAND.

/ Af THE PARTING OF THE WAYS. PRESENT POSITION REVIEWED. VALUABLE TIME WASTED. [By Magikteh.] There comes a psychological moment in tlift life, of the . individual, or the ; community, when in response to an irresistiblo forcecoll it what you will—a halt is called in the progress of events; the past is reviewed, the present is summed up and its value csti-' mated, and the nest move decided upon. In .that moment he who would solve his particular problem is brought face to faco ■Witli tlio cardinal principles of liis enterprise j he is compelled to estimate his work in relation to these principles, and to ask himself not whether the result is good in itself, but whether it is in harmony with the original scheme which, has been . supposed to, have formed the basis of his endeavpurs.,

The Old and the New. Such a moment. has now arrived .in the history of primary, education in New Zealand, Upun a stolid, conservative ' system of educat/nn which all will agree has had its day, but.'which, all will also" agree,' served with very good'purpose, and from'the fundamental principles of which, further, it is impo. -sibk to depart, there has ■ heen erected a fantastic super-structure, of chaotic dothis, metaphorically speaking, is the new " education. There appears to be no Constructive relationship between the old and the new. The one is a steel engraving, the other an impressionist sketch, attractive enough when viewed from a distance, but a Meaningless jumble of colour when examined closely. The "new" education, as {J ' s carried out in the primary schools of New Zealand to-day, is nothing more nor less :tha,n an aggregation of ideas, which, instead of being dovetailed into. the. old scheme, have i been heaped indiscriminately upon it, and i SCU structural elements of tha The Things that Matter. . Primary education is the : preparatory phase of the education of thocitizen. It is • concerned with the elementary principles of knowledge and conduct—the tilings that mat- •< i r ' s ?i E P e , 311 dif these are not grasped, then the embryo, citizen has been deprived of a portion of his heritage. Ho is entitled to -receive such instruction as will enable him .to, read intelligently, write legibly, reckon accurately, and give clear expression to his ideas either in speech, or writing; he must also know something of the world in which he lives, and possess an intelligent comprehension of the history of his nation; he should " be acquainted with the principles of draughtsmausbip, and of vocalisation j and h© ought also to-be aware of the main principles of tho iorces which govern the solar system generally, and his own planet particularly. All these are " things that matter," and if it can be said of the embryo citizen, when ha emerges from the preparatory phase of hia education, that he is possessed of a sound understanding of these things — a sound understanding —then no one can complain of the .system which has given it to him. But, on the other hand, if he, in. a manner of speaking, bo probed for that which eVeryono expects him to possess, and he is found wanting, then something is wrong somewhere.

General to the. Particular. ; It is' here convenient to 'leave generalities, and deal with particular cases. What is to be said of a boy who, possessed of average intelligenco, and .having passed successfully from the lowest to the highest standard of a school.'not a hundred miles from Wellington, was unable to show his teacher the locality of the Mediterranean Sea? Of another, who had never heard of Berlin? What had these boys been doing with their time? There had been no time : — the " syllabus was overcrowded," a,phase which, in the school- world, is becoming as hackneyed.as "the increased cost of living" has already become in the world without. _ Somo mouths ago, a short article appeared in the education columns of The Dominion, describing tho ,very excellent work which was then being carried out at a cbrtain wood-work class in one of the city schools. Tho interesting process of making little articles of domestic utility was made a most valuable medium for imparting instruction in drawing, arithmetic, and certain mechanical principles.' Plans of tho articles about to bo made wore drawn, and their dimensions, to scale, calculated and checked. Thus was the constructive faculty of tho boy impressed "into the service of his education. .But,, if tho following conversation, which tho present writer had with a certain parent, represents what is actually taking place now, then it is to bo feared that the excellent institution referred to has been prostituted ttf another "new" idea in education:— Vox Pcpuli.

"There's no doubt," observed this gentle* man, "that the youngsters nowadays have a good time at school—too good a time." "More ha'penco than kicks P" "Something like that," ho agreed. "Now, there's that youngster of mine; he's in tho Fifth Standard, and I'm beginning to ponder seriously over his future. He's by no means a genius; neither is he a dunce, but I'm just beginning to be afraid .that what ho knows so far is' not going to dp him much good 'when lie leaves school. His arithmetic is frightfully inaccurate, and his writing by no means legible. I dare say he'll pull up a bit in his next class, but what, I. can't understand is this wood-work business."

"That is generally understood to be a most valuable medium of teaching drawing and arithmetic," remarked tho writer. "Well," ho said, "I can't sco it. Now, I'll tell you. I'ho other day the boy camo home with something he had made at.tho wood-work class. Ho said it was a copy of a Norman battle-axe, of tho kind that Bruce finished Do Boliun with in the 'scrap' at Bannockburn. I took his word for it. 1 also took some of tho conceit out of him by getting him to own up that ho had no idea of what tho result of that light signified, or what would have happened if the odda had been tho other way. What does it signify what kind of weapon slew Boliun ? The subsequent proceedings didn't interest him. I then asked him if ho. had mado anything really useful lately, and liq said ho hadn't. I don't know how long these woodwork lessons last, or how many of them wcra usod up with tho battle-axe, .hut,l have s notion that he would have been better employed in putting a better polish on hif arithmetic."

A Significant Movement. From the above conversation it ■ could bo jnforred that wood-work was being utilised, ill'some vague kind of way, as .111 : accessor} to the teaching of history. If that were so, then two more important subjects, which could with far better advantage have been co-ordinated with' tlio bench ana tools —drawing and , arithmetic—liavo been sacrificed' to another "now" idea, and the co-operation of the parents lias been lost. Recently, in Wellington, the headmasters of t|io city and 'suburban schools formed themselves'into an association. Their purpose and aim as an association have not, so far been made public, but 0110 of its member's recently remarked, significantly, after giving expression to somo of his sentiment; regarding the "new" education, that "Till Headmasters' Association wasn't formed ,be< foro it was needed." .

Mis-spent Energy, Time and Money. Tho simple fact of tho matter is that thd teachers have been given a now and improved set 'of "tools" wherewith to carry on. witl more; pleasure and profit to their pupils and themselves, the old work, but have not been •taught, how to uso thorn. Tho result ha» boon that tho "tools," instead of being made tho mediums of instruction, have beoi themselves the subjects of instruction. Instead of co-ordinating manual and technical work with convenient subjects of the school

. sourse, hours and hours have been wasted in manual instruction as a subject in itself —a circumstance which is as'",far 'removed from the principles of such instruction as it could possibly be. Senior, classed have been employed for one hour per week on brushwork of. a standard of difficulty easily attained ,by junior classes in England. 'Another hour has had to be found for "formal" drawing. Could anything be'imote futile than initiating a fifth-standard class, curing one whole hour per week, into the elementary " blobs" of the first lessonV in brush-work. And yet such'classes earn capitation! Here is waste piled upon waste— time and then money. The time wasted on ouch experiments is, filched from the sterner subjects of the courso, The school week consists of twenty-fivo : hours, and not ■ one half-hour can be spared. The teachers must not only be 'on intimate terms with these new ideas, but must also be taught how to coordinate theso ideas with the regular course. . , v Where Are the Inspectors? It is understood that certain inspectors were .appointed by the Education Department to see that the provisions of the Man-' ual and Technical Instruction Act were .properly carried out, but it is a matter of common knowledge that they have rarely visited Wellington—some schools they have never visited. What the scope of their authority is does not appear to have been made very clear, but it will bear explanation. Mark Time! What, however, is very manifest is the fact that we must mark time until we can see clear through to bed-rock what • this . "new" education really means to the old \ education. We stand at the parting of the ways j on the one side is the old, and on the other the new. There must be an intermediate course between that which spells retrogression, and the other, where primary education is in a very real danger of becoming the sport of faddists.