TOO MUCH CRAMMING

Evening Star, Issue 18716, 19 August 1924, Page 6

TOO MUCH CRAMMING

EXAMINATIONS THE CAUSE PROFESSOR ADAMS’S VIEW. Although not yot having spent more than a couple of days in Now Zealand, Professor Adams, tho world-famous education ' authority, is quoted in Australia as saying that there is too much cramming in New Zealand schools, and that examinations are tho cause. , On being met, on his arrival In Australia, by well-known citizens. Professor Adams is reported to have said that he * heard complaints of cramming in Now ’ Zealand -in excess of that in England, ' where there was more real education. In 1 New Zealand there wore too many cx- ’ animations, which always led to cramming. It was a serious problem, and ho thought a system of inspection might help ; to solve it. ’ England had three and a-half : women teachers to one man. In New | Zealand tho proportion was two to one, which was right. Children under tho ago of twelve years were better under women teachers', but after that girls should be taught by women and boys by men. ENGLISH EDUCATION. The main development of English odu- , cation, said Professor Adams, was along the lines of individualism. Teachers wore paying more and more attention to individual pupils, and from that point of view the cystem of the full class was falling into disrepute. With regard to actual instruction, there was in England a groat movement towards tho establishment of municipal secondary schools, on similar lines to the high schools of America and New Zealand. The tendency in tho past, ho said, had been to classify the schools on social lines. Up to the present there had been no connecting link tor tho average child between elementary and secondary education. In future, they would merge, and tho municipal secondary schools would stand in between the elementary and tho old grammar and public schools. In England they still believed in separate schools, hut. his impression was that tho tendency towards co-odnca-tion was on tho increase. DOCTRINE OF “INTEREST.” The advent of the doctrine of interest had been responsible for a great change in England, in the presentation of different subjects. Tho object, of the system was to give tho children a. definite desire to carry out certain work, even though it entailed drudgery. It had boon found that tho system of interesting the children in their work made them work much better. The day of the “good old j grind” was past. Drawing a comparison between the Eng- 1 lish and American methods of education, j Professor Adams said the American j teacher was more clastic, more receptive | of and more, adaptive to new ideas than j tiie English teacher. The American schoolmaster was not so conservative as his English colleague, and was more prepared to test new theories. Probably, though, he was less I borough t han the Englishman. As to children, mentally defective, he believed that too much lime and energy might bo devoted to their education. Ho considered that they should be given every chance, but that their j training should bo carried out by the sym- I pathetic and intelligent teachers, rather j than by brilliant intellects required for more useful spheres of activity. An overflowing audience at the great | hall of the Sydney University listened i with interest to the first of five lectures by Professor Adams on ‘Tendencies of Modern Education.’ At the present moment there was, lie said, such a combination of new movements as to constitute a real change, making it one of tho vital periods in the history of education. Ho caused laughter among his audience by asserting that women were less conservative than men in educational theories. Mon were inclined lo lot things stay; women were far more inclined to have Iheir consciences, and to look round for new methods. Tho Dalton plan illustrated their greater adaptability. “TAIDOCEXTRICbS.M.” “ Paidocenlricism,” as Professor Adams termed it, was tho centring of ink-rest in the individual rather than in the subject. That was a fundamental condition in now education. Madame Montessori depended on it, although he believed she carried it too far. In the future each j • child would leave school with a card that , would indicate individual qualities, apart , altogether from scholastic attainments. ' They would see their own possibilities and - capacities, compared with their atlam- { ments. ” Self-realisation and self-expression | were, in effect, differing terms. SelfI realisation emphasised a certain amount ' of giving away of freedom for a higher freedom. ! Old Plato himself said, “I don’t know what young people are coming to now,” quoted Professor Adams, in illustrating that there was nothing fearful in the desire of a child to live its own life. If tho disease went back as far as Plato, it was not very serious. The young pcoplo were all right; they were going to do things just as others did when they wore young. If it was not for the young, stagnation would immediately set in. lie was not afraid of the cry for a certain amount of license; the young people of to-day were as sano as the young people of his clav.