"THE HEN WITH ONE CHICKEN"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 22, 20 October 1917, Page 11

"THE HEN WITH ONE CHICKEN"

Sir,—"X'e" letter in your Saturday issue is certainly opportune. Can the Press, do anything to arrest- this little-late-family business? Suppose that The Dominion, and with it every other daily in New.Zealand, devoted the whole of a Saturday issue to a thorough discussion and exposition of tho question, well written-up and well printed. No racing on page 7, no fashion, no advts., no picture announcement, no war cables, no politics, not a word about the weather or the ehipping, no personal pars, no district notes, no local and general. The shock might convince a few that the mat-

tor is fin important and a serious one. but a letter now and again, even nn annual loader, presents tho matter to most "Y,-°, h '° ht u£ "• fad, important lo tho iaadist, but easily skipped by tho gouoral reader, willingly, perhaps wilfully, slapped. And thero is so much to find iault with, so many to blamo! i'or ono thins, 1 blamo our system of education, or rather its application and administration. That derivation of education, that it comes from a Latin verb to draw out," ami means "to bring out the parts and faculties of the pupil, may not stand. Thero is no Latin verb meaning any such tiling, ihero are two Latin verbs—educo (1) with pp. oductuin, (2) pp. educatum; (2) ie a frequentative form of (1); both mean to draw or bring out, and both are used to denoto tho office of tho midwife; (2), however, camq to moan more particularly ,tno drawing out, rearing, and training of the child; and education has come to eland lor the wholo art and process ot 'bringing out" into the world, not tho capabilities inherent in the pupil, but the pupil himself, mind and body. The process accomplished, education has brought forth a complete and capable man or woman, has "hatched out" u citizen from the immature egg or ovum of infancy and childhood. If neglecccd. that which an egg contains becomes dead' matter, -useless and offensive. If properly incubated it becomes in duo lime a living thing, a chick, a sparrmr, or an eagle, a fowl, or an ostrich. If improperly incubated the proportion of chicks hatched out is small. This seems to bo how our system of education is working. It is hatching out a small proportion only of hvo chicks, that is to say of young men and young women worthy the name of citizen; and tho fault lies herein. Instead of setting itself, in accord with the laws of Nature, with due patience, and with all precaution, to hatch out real livo citizens, our system seems to take if for granted that in uonio mysterious -way tho chicks have already hatched themselves, and proceeds simply to stuff things into them. Now, education does not mean "to 6hifi! in." Yet since one here and there survives tho process, and we cry "great is our system of education, secular, compulsory and freel" Forgetful of the fact that the success of the few epells tho failure of tno many, and may have been brought about m spite of a bad system rathor than by means of a good one. Just for all tho world like a hen with, one chick! As a matter of fact we seem to bo "turning out" rather than "bringing out" children, a proportion of whom will in due time uso thoir echoolmates us stepping-stones and chopping-blocks, but who for the most part must be called little mediocrities, to- begin life as young nothings-in-particular. Assuredly tho decade wo call its school ago should bo used to the child's better advantage'. Surely it should be set on its way through life with a well-established individuality of character for one • thing and with, its social qualities in a fair way of development for another. Hut unfortunately this system, as applied and administered to-day, pays scant heed to either, the individual or Bocial character of the pupils it l "passes out" but fails to "bring out" year by year. And yet these two essential characteristicsindividuality and sociability—comprise and nnderly all that is connoted by the expression human nature. But" the system discounts human nature and puts a premium on brains. And in.order that brains may be duly or unduly developed,, individuality must bo firmly repressed, since only by drilling each and all in the same routine! rut can a sufficiently high average of passes be obtained and maintained. It is equally undesirable that much, if any, importance should be attached to functions of body and mind whereby tho school children of to-day will react upon each other for good or evil, not only through their own lives, but throughout generations of Uvea to come. Physical, drill and the like may bo taken as an allusion to such functions, but anything beyond that would be out of place and waste of time under a system which seems to presuppose that it is briiiiis not "luaunara maketh man." The very fact that in u few years these youngsters will have a voice to raise and a part to play in tho government of the country is left to filter into their minds by any means and through any channels tis chance may serve.

But even supposing that education cid mean the production of brains and little or nothing else, the question reliiiiins, "What sort, of brains?" Parrot brains or thinking brains! , Tho Chinese coolie does more thinking than the average specimen of young man or woman iof English breed and fitate school extraction. History taught in a human way would be an immense help against race suicide. .But history in chunks, with lists of names and strings of dates, ■and, more odious still, a catenation of "parties," "movements," "reforms," and "repeals," springing up anyhow and ending nowhere in nothing particular, is a thing to be forgotten as eoon as possible, and that is very soon indeed. The class of brains our system is producing is just about capable of appreciating a freak picture film!—l am, etc., H. M. B. MARSHALL. Mangatainoka, October 13.