LIVING AND LEARNING

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 96, 27 April 1929, Page 11

LIVING AND LEARNING

THE --GULP BETWEEN

HOW BRIDGE IT?

(Written by F. L. Combs, M.A.)

"The hungry sheep look up and are not fed."—John Milton.' "He ventured to say that 08 per cent, of the children of Now Zealand had to earn their living, and it had to be re-, cognised that their education must be associated with their needs as well as with merely abstract ideas."—Hon. H. Atmore, reported in "Evening Post," 25th March, 1929. „■'■'■■ ■ "Education iv New Zealand must approach nearer reality."—Minority Report (Messrs. G. T. London, A. Sando, A". E.Lawrence). , ' - .. My second quotation is, I think, the keynote of the pronouncements of the now Minister of Education. Its com-mon-sense seems obvious, yet it is startling. It is startling because it has been forgotten. Truth dwells iii a well, and half the task of human research is'to haul up neglected ' verities that have fallen back into it. Mr. Atmoro advances the claim, of Needs as against-.Abstract Ideas.-. The child when attended to is found to advance the same ' claim. ''Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings' 1 comes at any rate the most accurate statement of what they, feel, desire, and require. The child psychologist agrees with Mr. Atmore. Far from prescribing abstract ideas for the child, lib draws up .a diet of vivid varied concrete-particulars. Thechild's interests coincide with his needs. Both bias him in the direction. of vivid active participation in the doings of the world about him. . '• . .

Why, then, do we "school" tho child? AVhy clo we compulsorily confine him the best part of his waking days in an overcrowded barrack? ■ AVhy, when he is there, do we ; cramp hi? movements, deprive him of the vivid actualities: that would feed his childish interest, coerce him into learning when his impulse is to be doing? Why at a stage when he ought to bo ravenously absorbing impressions and making eager-contact with actualities, do we batten him within four walls which we roundly assert do not a prison make, though the quiescent adult is not one-fifth as sensitive jto confinement as the restless child?

■ There can only bo one answer to these questions—because in our zeal for the subjects of instruction we have forgotten that extraordinarily complicated physical 'and mental organism, the -individual child; Here I take the risk of caricature (so fiii Dickens—;see ''Hard Times"). I read monumental reports (by Hadow, ef :hpc: genus omne) on "Types of School and' Courses of Instruction,:) ' and :I,'; see; before : me a you-ng member of the-human species; He-is, in a kind; of stall.. r (the /type school), somewhat like the' edifice- used in stuffing Strasbourg geese.: -The-eight buttons over his little abdomen- turn into the knobs of eight neat little drawers. Eight skilful instructors are dexterously busy with thesei Each pulls out one, shoves'in';a subject,, say, French or mathematics; or art or craft work, and pushes'it home again—ahttj'so all .the school-day long. -No instructor sees the child ,whole (i.e.,; individual). The child never.seesanything he is tloing' as a,whole—never- feels himself; to be functioning as a whole. He is being reconstructed into a sectional 1 container of the "courses of instruction.'•' Selfrealisation wherb alone if is possible/in a real situation, is denied him. Yet only self-realisation can consummate character formation, and character for-, niation is- the' goal of a ivell-spont life.' Tho minority report states ■, ray. point admirably .when it says:— '. V, /. „ „ ./. Merely to lookb atj-the of ;;;'Study . .: -.-is towiew-the most vital probljem of the d£y from ah angle" 'that'-brings a'maximum of- distortion. . "■■■■.-■: !'■■ ' ' '-; - ' .-"' •. '■'■■ '■. THE WORLD OF REALITIES. What is. wrong? ;(1) Education gotten wholly.into the hands of-'scholastieally-traine'd' minds ('.'the charmed' circle of teachers "—-minority report) has become more.'and more-isolated from lif,el; (2) Education which should-be subsidiary to.life has" usurped 'empire over it!.•' (1) Educationists -are 1 painfully conscious of the unreal' world ;they have led the child and "themselves into. ' They make continual abortive efforts to get out. Like bees 'in a" kitchen, they can see through the' glass the world of realities they belong to. They buzz'for hours against the glass,' "puzzled, to understand what confines'tJiem. -"'lt-is a -habit of thinking in ternis of. schools and subjects, the onlyreiiiecly for which seems ■to' them ■different schools and dift'eront subjects. .■"-■ ■';-'.' t " '■'■'■ ."■ ■■'■• ■■; ■ (2) Education ;ih the ■■restricted' sense of schooling- was never intended to be more than a running commentary on experience.: Life" is learned by living, by doing, acting and transacting, by ac-' cepting and carrying out responsibilities; by creatively achieving; by sharing the tasks, problems, and duties of the social whole ;tho individual belongs to. -Education'has made life for ' the child like anvover-leariied 'treatise. There is a thin Vedge of book at the top of the page, but tho bulk of the apace is occupied by footnote upon footnote. Preposterously, disastrously, the pupil is made learned in order to learn how to live. Are we beginning, to realise that he (should live learning, since no one can 1 learn living? .;■ A TRAGHOAI, IDEA. The idea that education can precede life, that you can -take the formative early years of the mind; and heart and by intensively instilling ideas and information . stow i aboard a 1 cargo of learning that, will last throughout the voyage of life, "would be comic if its outcome were liot tragical. We all know that niostjof .what we have thus ■learned is-not :\vanted on Ahe.^ voyage or that owing to its sterilisation' for tho purpose-of .dry, |torage,it lies inert and futile in the,/desiecated -memory.... Are not school'historyj. r 's|ehobl;.:mathematics, and school ■scicri'cb-a by'cword" for. this reason. .'. /.,.-;':--t---" i1 i j ;| i;':: vf^'-- :'■.'■'':■ ■""'■■'■ '-,_> There is no'inagic;by means of whichwhat is'yeirne^'iiuan -.niireariway can ever .-becomo'.-rtfdi V:^;; OnJy, reality has the power-to:;qUiCken .the anitfd to. a sense- of ..reality^'.; /VSc-ality and. .'■ prac.ticality'which''^r> Atinpre rightly seeks ■ can bniy..be|tobiained -by., direct contact "with-, actuality .:p.'.- *&,-,■'■.:'•'-..''.■■'■•„'■•'■ ■-"-.■■'■ .. ■ ';PLRA4fOKJRi|ALIT-y.; ; ■ , ' 'On TuesdayvixSt fl'Spoke to. an audi--ence' of educationists.''"-., -I'.'mado . my: most'strenUjoWplea for/reality. ''-. I was disappointedv'wft'S. th'o-./'respbhsc. ■'.- Was' I, as .Mr. 1 Miles-says, 'provocative? I t tried to be!-: wien'o I.fasserted that the; newsboy ori'.-Lambton-W ; illis i street corner' was. being: steeped:.in a .more.vivid: varied educative':'experience, than was afforded in'the classroom.;' Even this heresy 1 passed, iincliallenged.; I turn for comfort.' tq the N minority report, •which in its 27)' pages rarely leaves the; subject; '-.-. -f-'r >,:■;.. ". ';-.■ It wants'^'*'«e;; child's,,work f -to arise out of a, real,s tuation."..-.,-..-.; '...■-.■' . It wants^eduiatipn centred "on the; Before); theViewlyrConstitute'd board had time'tb' "" isom.es to' grips with, its main object^— ;he) supply .of water—' sundry, side issies.'cropped up which inthe aggregate'father- threatened .the; very existence 1 of;'the-board.' -The first of these was tro.'question-of whether or not sawmilling 'should !,be ..allowed on any pavt'<bfit)e-:'n.ew Restate. Some inomb ers: plead id ' for tlic . prescr vat ion ■ of the,native fbrest;"; others ■-,expressed the view .that [under proper .control-.no-harm' would eimpj of - sawmilling; bosides, there was 'the needed revenue. Tho taking u-nfoci:! licence, of opossums, the 'sale ■oi-:-f^m>oSi bo*h; eownectepV

with' revenue, wore other matters absorbing many hours. There were-many other smaller, issues., '•'-"■.. . • STATUTOEY XIMITATIONS, •■ "It has never been quite clear, to mo why the creation of this trust was accompanied by so much restrictive limitations," continued Mr. Bennett. "Prom what" one can gather, Cabinet decided to create, the trust by the transfer of tbo. property to a public body for certain purposes. It was not till the proposal came before ' the full House that the Bill became the victim of harassing ■ conditions. So strong was the opposition in certain quarters that only by judicious compromise could the main intent bo effected. "It was not, therefore, surprising that iv the following session the board presented its appeal in the form of an. amending Act. The purport was to first remove the restriction on .annual expenditure (£3000), and, secondly, to give the board the right to purchase other lands within the watershed. Although it was clear that the temper of the House-had long since subsided, the unfortunate board foiind itself rent from within. The presentation of the case for the board before the Committee of the House was thus made under the ludicrous circumstances of- having some of its own .members appear in opposition. There was only one result. The 'board was told to put its owii house in order first, and so it has remained hamstrung. . ' ; ;. ■ The present position of the Water ' Bpard is that.it can do very little without amending legislation. If the smaller local bodies continue in opposition, it is faced "with no other alternative but to accept the 'trust under a new constitution. If .this was necessary,. Mr. Bennett said, he felt sure that the City Council would , favourably, consider taking tho' whole thing over. > He' would advocate ■such a course. Assuming, however, for the purpose of further discussion that the board overcame its internal dissensions and a common front was presented in dealing with .thc v main question of tho supply of water to its constituency, there wore some very-interesting features still' to. be considered.