ARE OUR SCHOOLS STIFLING YOUNG LIFE?

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 213, 3 June 1919, Page 6

ARE OUR SCHOOLS STIFLING YOUNG LIFE?

Sir,—A weighty warning against the deadening influence of a ureal pari ol our schooling was given hy Mr. F. L. Combs in his article on "The School of the Future" in Saturday's Dominion. I think ho might well have laid grcntor stress on his contention. Unless school-' ing coil bo brought closer to actual lifn as the Montessori teachers are trying to bring it in the infants] dopartmoiit— tlio extension of tlio teachjng period and of the teachers' power will bring positive harm to the youth, whether of Britain or of New Zealand. Air. Conibs's suggestion that it would ho better to reduco the age of compulsory schooling to twelve than to increase .i( in sixteen is, I believe, fully justified. Most people, if lliey would think for themselves, would agreo with him, and espociallv wilh his idea tf dividing tho present .school hours between productive work and education. This proposal is very different from tho half-time system of l!ie past. But it may bo seriously questioned whelhor that system, with oil iis heartless exploitation and abii6o of young life, did not turn out boys and girls belter fitted for useful and happy careers than the boys and girls who have endured .wars of deadening repression in our secondary schools. I have (aught a class of boys from twelve to sixteen years of age, fresh from the highest classes in the primary schools. Fine bovs they were, keen and active. Most of' tlieni made a good effort even with the drudgery. of Mi' Their motive was disappointing,. Someone had

drummed it into their heads that, if they went through the secondary course and passed their examination, they would be rewarded with a soft joti and a largo salary; others would have to do the "hard" work and accept the low wages. A miserable motive. Yet what other motive could be 'given to the pupils? Some teachers talked about training the mind. But the boys' instinct toid them that was nonsense. As well burn down houses, like Lamb's Chinaman, in order to get training in the cooking of pork, as learn Latin for the sake of mind-training.

Some of tho boys succeeded, went through the course, und then got jobs in the professions or proceeded to university. Some of the most successful scholars found themselves tho least fitted, for practical life. They would become tho butt of the office hoys, os they absentmindedly dropped the paste brush in the inkpot or 'brought the wrong change from the bank. Very many would elip into a drudge's groove, probably in the Public Service, with no prospect but superannuation. On the other hand, somo found it impossiblo to drive themselves to the futile school work/and were sent away early to earn their living—lucky fellows. The most tragic fato was that of those who, without any interest in the studies, were compelled by their parents to continue attending year after year.' School was simply prison to them. They had no incentive to work except the fear of punishment. In the lowest division of a fifth form, which I once taught for a few hours weekly, twentyfour out of' thirty boys were of this type. They were certainly being corrupted— mado unfit for life. Those vigorous impulses in which youth ig so rich wore given no chance for development in healthy directions during school hours. Those impulses either asserted themselves in vicious forms or wero Stifled. Which is worse? . Tho sports hours gave manv boys the only opportunity for the development of their natural activities. _ The hours in class were hours of imprisonment. Lebon, in his book "The Crowd," notices how the increase of secondary education in France has been accompanied by a grave increase in criminality. Do we not 6ee a similar phenomenon in [New Zealand? Sex irregularities rre constantly noted in tho schools as well as in the courts. lam convinced that much of the growing incontinence among the youth of this land is due to a school regime which compels adolescents to' spend hour after hour, day after day, year after year, in occupations in which they have no live interest—occupations that seem to .them purposeless. Satan finds mischief for bored minds as well as for idle hands. I question whether this cause is not even more effective for evil than the constant - stimulation of adolescents by heating-foods, exciting recreations, and lascivious reading. I hope Mr. Combs and those who think with him will battle to 6ave our vouths aiid maidens irom a corrupting and deadening repression, and to give them a real education—an education will help them to develop the life that is in them. As Bertrnnd Russell says, we need deeper reverence for young lives.—l am, etc., AMATEUR TEACHER. June 2, 1919.