SYLLABUS COMMITTEE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 125, 29 May 1928, Page 6

SYLLABUS COMMITTEE

FINDINGS CRITICISED . Reference to the findings of the Syllabus Committee was made by .the Director of thd Wellington Technical College at the me ing of tho College Board of Governors last evening. Mr, llowell said:— "It has been a very great surprise to find that the committee which was set up by tho Minister to consider tho revision of the primary school syllabus has gone on to lay down a scheme for thq reorganisation of our post-pri-mary schools. iProm the summary that has appeared in the Press it would seem that those proposals are revolutionary and have" been made without such thorough investigation as the subject demands. It would bo expected, for example, that evidence would be invited from representatives of ■ teeh.nical schools,.but as far as I am aware, these were, with the exception of a former director, competcly ignored. I shall hope to deal further with this matter when the full report is to hand. "That part of tho report containing the revisidn of the syllabus was submitted to the Technical Schools Conference, and as regards the teaching of arithmetic is gravely wanting. Accuracy is insisted upon, but nothing is said about logical methods. Yet for the average person to be orderly and correct in thinking is much more important than to bo ablo to multiply and divide without mistake. For how many of us have to do arithmetical calculations ! beyond addition and subtraction, while we'all have to think and draw conclusions? And even for business purposes the use of tables and mechanical calculators lessen the number of those from whom arithmetical accuracy is required. In my judgment, and I believe most .teachers of mathematics will agree with me, the first necessity in the teaching of arithmetic is tho insistL ence upon logical method tho want of which is itself often the root cause of inaccuracy. To be satisfied, with/correct numerical answers when the reasoning is inconsequent or false is most vicious teaching."