BABES AT SCHOOL

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 34, 9 August 1934, Page 11

BABES AT SCHOOL

THE KINDERGARTEN AGE

DIFFERENT VIEWPOINTS

"At the present time, education is very much at the crossroads, and the future of the Dominion depends largely on tho turning that we take., The three most urgent problems are the education of adolescents, sub-normals, and town children of kindergarten age," said Mr. N, E. MeKenzie, ex-inspector of schools, Taranaki, in an address given at tho conference of the Free Kindergarten Union yesterday. "I can do no more than mention the adolescents and sub-normals and commend them to the sympathy of the audience," ho remarked. Tho controversy about the five-year-olds which is now raging is due largely to misunderstanding. Tho Minister of Education and the New Zea-_ Jand Educational Institute are both sincere, but they iiro looking at the question from different viewpoints. Tho Minister has done good service by excluding iive-year-olds from formal instruction, while tho institute is amply justified in asking that the children bo saved from the bad results of spending their time on the streets. "As you know, Froobel compared a child with a plant! Hence development must come from within the individual. "This is the basis of tho kindergarten—the garden of children. Formal instruction in subjects unrelated to the child's life is mere incrustation, and if incrustation be continued long enough it will form a fossil. Tho question at issue then is this: Are our children to bo living organisms or fossils? , WHAT THE FIGURES SHOW. "Tho figures being quoted in the present controversy are contained in a little book entitled ''Taranaki School Surveys,' for which I am responsible. "When I was an exchange inspector of schools in Toronto, Canada, an investigation as to the results of giving formal instruction to young children was in progress. It extended over a period of fourteen years and the .school careers of 13,774 children were carefully studied by the chief inspector and his staff. I do not know of any other equally searching inquiry. , "The results showed that it was unprofitable froni the point of view of moasurablc results to give formal in-^ structioff to:five-year-olds. On the average, children who entered school at tho age of five completed the course only two .months earlier than those who entered at six. In other words, teachers wcic paid twelve months' salary for tho equivalent of two months' work. Xo one knows how much harm was done to ;the children by ; the uncongenial study. "The investigation has no bearing on kindergarten work, which docs not lend itself to educational measurement. However, nobody doubts its value, at any rate for town children. "In conclusion, I would appeal to you to do your best to save the babies from the fossilising process, to urge the extension .of kindergarten classes in both public and private schools, and to give sympathetic consideration to the needs-of the adolescent and the sub: normal." ■• ■ • ;