SCHOOL SYLLABUS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2860, 26 August 1916, Page 10

SCHOOL SYLLABUS

A TEACHER'S CRITICISMS

NOT ENOUGH TIME

The teaching syllabus prescribed foi use in tho primary schools of this country was criticised in general review, and in detail by Mr. W. H. L. Foster, in a lecture he gave to the Teachers' Institute last night. Mr. fustcr's criticism was chiefly adverse, but ho did admit, or, rather, he claimed with some enthusiasm, that there wore some excellent features in our school system. His central idea was that our present syllabus was overloaded. So much is attempted in some subjects that the result is unsatisfactory, and this uuduo preponderance of certain subjects, along with the. multiplicity of subjects, crowd/a out <•£ the syllabus a good deal that ought to be in it. These statements are commonplaces among experts, but Mr. Foster was not content with simply enunciating tlicm. He went into some detail, and his criticism was extremely interesting to teachers. It would havd left the pseudo-experts who have had much to do with tho framing of our education policy quite cold. Mr. Foster chose to deal with physii<l training first, lie did not condemn utterly tho present system of physical exercises, but said that to tho ordinary boy it seemed purposeless and aim. less, and had no appeal for him. He would like to see the Juuior Cadet system re-established on sano lines I'm the benefit of the upper classes in the schools'. He associated health with drill, and he digressed to remark that h« thought too much importance was' apt to ,be attached to set lessons on such subjects as health and morals. Teaching on health and morals should bo given in conjunction with other sub. jeets as tho opportunities offered. So also he ridiculed the requirements of examiners on what was called "citizenship." Subjects for which insufficient lime was allowed were reading and singing. He urged strongly the importance of good speech. The faulty reading of New Zealand scholars ho attributed first of all to the sizoof the classes to bo taught by one teacher, limiting the practice that could be allowed to every scholar, and also to the unslTitability of the reading books provided. He especially condemned tlie wore jeccnt issues of the School Journal,' which lie had lately seen used by an instructor as nn admirable hunting ground in which to find sentences for correction! Composition in Now Zealand schools, ho thought, was very good. In spelling ho was an unwilling advocate of reform. He admitted that he preferred "labour" to "labor," but he had fo admit that he could not justify the preference on any grounds of philology or pedagogy, lie thought that the ordinary vocabulary to be taught to the child should lw reasonably limited, and that for rare words tiio child should bo familiarised in tho use of tlio dictionary. Ho believed in the teaching of a certain amount of formal grammar—more than that now provided for. Writing, ho said, deserved much more attention than it received, but.he considered tho drawing syllabus overloaded to the point of absurdity.

In conclusion Jlr. Foster said that he hoped that something would bo dono by the teaching profession to load public opinion in the right way. "If wo love onr profession," he said, "then wo arc failing in onr duty if we allow faddists or superficial enthusiasts to do something to our primary system which will prove fatal to it. I have no.patience with two classes of people. To the first belong those who would dump everything worth knowing on to tho .shoulders of the schoolboy. What an unhappy little prig ho would be if he learned everything that some people snj 'he ought to learn! I have also a foel'ing of impatience towards the teachers In our ranks who are not stable for twelve won His at a time in methods.

... . Partly, this is due to the ab.s\ml craze to lie up-to-date, the rush after the latest book an <\inoricaii hoolc for preference, or the latest method, -.rithont considering whether it is going In suit the New Zealand child. This. 1 shftik, is something to ho deprecated." H<* was emphatic in his final declaration that it was not right to make experiments when the materials to ho used were tlio lives and souls of little i'l:ildrcn.